Massachusetts Fire Protection Licensing Law

Massachusetts Code · 4 sections

The following is the full text of Massachusetts’s fire protection licensing law statutes as published in the Massachusetts Code. For the official version, see the Massachusetts Legislature.

M.G.L. ch. 112, s. 81E

Section 81E. The board shall examine applicants for registration as professional engineers and as professional land surveyors and applicants desiring to take written or oral examinations to evidence qualification for registration as professional engineers or professional land surveyors. It shall make such rules and regulations as are necessary or proper for the conduct of its duties. The board may adopt and shall use an official seal. If any person, firm, co-partnership, corporation or joint stock association refuses to obey any decision, rule or order, or any part thereof, issued by the board pursuant to its powers, the attorney general of the commonwealth shall, upon request of the board, file a petition in equity for the enforcement of such decision, rule or order in the superior court for Suffolk county or for the county in which such person, firm, co-partnership, corporation or joint stock association resides or has a place of business. After due hearing, with such notice as the court may direct, the court shall order the enforcement of such decision, rule or order, or any part thereof, to the extent that such decision, rule or order, or any part thereof, has been legally and properly made by the board. The board, for the purposes of registration of professional engineers, shall recognize all the fundamental branches of engineering which shall include, without limiting the generality thereof by specific enumeration, the following fields:— aeronautical, chemical, civil, electrical, heating and ventilating, and air conditioning, industrial, mechanical, metallurgical, mining, safety, fire protection, sanitary and structural.

M.G.L. ch. 143, s. 2B

Section 2B. The commissioner shall promulgate and from time to time may amend and transmit to the commissioner of administration and finance and to the state superintendent of buildings such regulations as he may deem necessary to provide proper means of egress from and fire protection and prevention in the state house. Said board and said superintendent shall enforce said regulations.

M.G.L. ch. 143, s. 3Q

Section 3Q. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the provisions of this chapter relative to the safety of persons and the prevention of fire in convalescent or nursing homes, rest homes and charitable homes for the aged licensed under the provisions of section seventy-one of chapter one hundred and eleven, including the regulation of the inspection, materials, construction, alteration and repair of such homes, shall be enforced under rules and regulations promulgated by the division and the board. Except in the case of new construction addition, alteration, such rules and regulations may provide for the installation of a sprinkler system where, after hearing, the division finds such system necessary for the safety of persons; provided, however, that where a sprinkler system would be unnecessary or impractical because of the location, size or construction of a home or because the home is authorized to contain not more than twenty-five beds, the division may require alternative methods of fire protection. An automatic sprinkler system shall be provided throughout any newly-constructed home, and in the case of any existing home where the licensee proposes an addition or alteration, as defined in the state building code, an automatic sprinkler system shall be installed in the course of such addition or alternation to such extent as the division may direct in accordance with such rules and regulations.

M.G.L. ch. 143, s. 98

Section 98. The board of selectmen in a town or the mayor in a city may recommend to the board the adoption of rules and regulations imposing more restrictive standards than those established by the state building code for construction, alteration, repair, demolition, and removal in such a city or town. If the board finds that more restrictive standards are reasonably necessary because of special conditions prevailing within such city or town and that such standards conform with accepted national and local engineering and fire prevention practices, with public safety and with the general purposes of a statewide building code, the board may, after notice to said board of selectmen or mayor, and after a public hearing, adopt rules and regulations, impose conditions in connection with the adoption thereof and terminate such rules and regulations at such time and in such manner as the board may deem necessary, desirable or proper. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a city or town which is not served by a municipal water system may, with the approval of the board, adopt rules and regulations with regard to fire protection systems which are more restrictive than those established by the state building code; provided, however, that if the board does not issue a written decision within forty-five days of receipt of such proposed rules and regulations then they shall be deemed to have been approved by the board.

The law belongs to the people. Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 590 U.S. (2020)