§ 66. Lodging houses. 1. It shall be unlawful to occupy any lodging
house unless such dwelling conforms to the provisions of the specific
sections enumerated in section twenty-five to the extent required
therein, including the provisions of this section, and to all other
applicable provisions of this chapter.

2. a. No wood or other combustible facing shall be permitted on the
walls, partitions or ceilings of entrance halls or other public halls or
stairs, except a flat baseboard ten inches or less in height. The stair
string, handrails, soffits, fascias, railings, balustrades and newel
posts shall be constructed of hard incombustible material and shall be
of such sizes and secured in such manner as approved by the department.

b. The walls and ceilings of all entrance halls, stair halls and other
public halls and stairs shall be fire-retarded on the hall or stair side
with half-inch plaster board covered with twenty-six gauge metal or
other materials approved by the department.

c. Except partitions forming existing cubicles, flat baseboards not
more than ten inches high and door and window assemblies not otherwise
required to be fire-retarded, all wood partitions and all combustible
coverings on walls or partitions throughout the portion of the dwelling
used for lodging-house purposes shall be protected with incombustible
material approved by the department.

d. The cellar ceiling and the ceiling of every story shall be
fire-retarded. The department may accept an existing ceiling if it is in
good condition and plastered, or covered with metal or with half-inch
plaster board covered with metal, or other materials approved by the
department, except that the ceiling over and the floor beneath any
furnace, stove, boiler or hot-water heater shall be fire-retarded and
such fire-retarding shall extend for a distance of at least four feet
beyond the sides and rear and eight feet in front of such furnace, stove
or heater. Metal breechings and flues connected to such devices shall be
made secure and be protected in conformity with regulations adopted by
the department.

e. Every window not opening to the outer air in an entrance, stair or
other public hall shall be removed, and the opening closed and
fire-retarded, except that interior windows or similar openings in
partitions forming the enclosure of entrance, stair or other public
halls may be retained if they are used in the operation and maintenance
of the lodging house and are protected by automatic fire windows.

f. There shall be one or more completely enclosed compartments remote
from any stairway for the storage of mattresses, linens, brooms, mops
and other paraphernalia incidental to the occupancy and maintenance of
the lodging house, and such paraphernalia shall be stored in no other
portion of such dwelling. The partitions forming each such compartment
shall be fire-retarded and shall be provided with a fireproof door and
door assembly with the door self-closing. Each such compartment shall be
ventilated in accordance with regulations adopted by the department. Any
space which is used for the storage of mattresses, in addition to
conforming to the other provisions of this section, shall be provided
with a window ten square feet or more in area, and such window shall
open upon a street or yard.

g. There shall be provided on each lodging-house story one or more
containers of metal or other hard incombustible material, with
self-closing lids, in which all scrap and refuse of a combustible nature
shall be placed until its disposal.

h. Insecticides and other fluids containing inflammable, volatile or
combustible material shall be stored in a completely enclosed
fire-retarded room or compartment, ventilated in accordance with
regulations adopted by the department, and only under authority of a
permit from the fire department.

3. a. In non-fireproof lodging houses there shall be in all
dormitories, entrance and other public halls, stairs, storage rooms,
cellars and other parts of the dwelling an automatic wet-pipe sprinkler
system, installed and maintained in conformity with regulations adopted
by the department. In connection with such sprinkler system there shall
be an automatic closed-circuit alarm system so arranged and installed as
to give warning, at a recognized central station satisfactory to the
fire department, of the closure of any valve controlling water supply to
any of the sprinklers and of the operation of any sprinkler head. Such
alarm system shall also be so installed and maintained that when a
sprinkler operates an alarm bell satisfactory to the fire department,
eight inches in diameter or at least capable of being heard clearly
throughout the room, will sound in each dormitory and in the office of
the lodging house, and that such alarm system can also be operated
manually. Such sprinkler and alarm systems shall have supervisory and
maintenance service satisfactory to the department and the fire
department respectively. Any existing fire alarm or sprinkler system
which can be altered or adapted to meet the requirements of this
paragraph may be so used instead of a completely new system.

b. In fireproof lodging houses all dormitories, entrance and other
public halls, stairs, storage rooms, cellars and other parts of the
dwelling shall either be equipped with a combined sprinkler and fire
alarm system as required for the lodging houses provided for in
paragraph a or be equipped throughout with an automatic, thermostatic,
closed-circuit fire alarm system. Such alarm system shall be so arranged
and installed that it can also be operated manually and that it will
give warning, at a recognized central station satisfactory to the fire
department, of the operation of any part of the alarm system. Such alarm
system shall also be so installed and maintained as to actuate an alarm
bell satisfactory to the fire department and at least eight inches in
diameter in each dormitory in the dwelling and in the lodging-house
office when the alarm system operates. Such alarm system shall have
supervisory and maintenance service satisfactory to the fire department.

4. a. There shall be at least two means of unobstructed egress from
each lodging-house story, which shall be remote from each other. The
first means of egress shall be to a street either directly or by an
enclosed stair having unobstructed, direct access thereto. If the story
is above the entrance story, the second means of egress shall be by an
outside fire-escape constructed in accordance with the provisions of
section fifty-three or by an additional enclosed stair. Such second
means of egress shall be accessible without passing through the first
means of egress.

b. All doors opening upon entrance halls, stair halls, other public
halls or stairs or elevator, dumbwaiter or other shafts, and the door
assemblies, shall be fireproof with the doors made self-closing by a
device approved by the department, and such doors shall not be held open
by any device whatever. All openings on the course of a fire-escape
shall be provided with such doors and assemblies or with fireproof
windows and assemblies, with the windows self-closing and glazed with
wire glass, such doors or windows and their assemblies to be acceptable
to the department.

c. There shall be unobstructed aisles providing access to all required
means of egress in all dormitories. Main aisles, approved as such by the
department to provide adequate approaches to the required means of
egress, shall be three feet or more in width, except that no aisle need
be more than two feet six inches wide if it is intersected at intervals
of not more than fifty feet by crossover aisles at least three feet wide
leading to other aisles or to an approved means of egress.

d. Every required means of egress from the lodging-house part of the
dwelling shall be indicated by a sign reading "EXIT" in red letters at
least eight inches high on a white background illuminated at all times
during the day and night by a light of at least twenty-five watts or
equivalent illumination. Such light shall be maintained in a keyless
socket. On all lodging-house stories where doors, openings, passageways
or aisles are not visible from all portions of such stories, and in
other parts of the dwelling which may be used in entering or leaving the
lodging-house part and in which a similar need exists, signs with easily
readable letters as least eight inches in height, and continuously and
sufficiently illuminated by artificial light at all times when the
natural light is not sufficient to make them easily readable, shall be
maintained in conspicuous locations, indicating the direction of travel
to the nearest means of egress. At least one such sign shall be easily
visible from the doorway of each cubicle.

e. Access from the public hall at the top story to the roof shall be
provided by means of a bulkhead or a scuttle acceptable to the
department. Every such scuttle and the stair or ladder leading thereto
shall be located within the stair enclosure.

5. The number of persons accommodated on any story in a lodging house
shall not be greater than the sum of the following components.

a. Twenty-two persons for each full multiple of twenty-two inches in
the smallest clear width of each means of egress approved by the
department, other than a fire-escape.

b. Twenty persons for each lawful fire-escape accessible from such
story if it is above the entrance story.

6. Existing cubicles complying with all other provisions of this
section may be maintained, provided the top of the enclosure of every
cubicle is at least two feet from the ceiling. Any rearrangement of
existing cubicles that may be made necessary by the provisions of this
section shall be lawful. Cubicles authorized by this section shall not
be considered rooms or alcoves but parts of the rooms in which they are
constructed.

7. The department shall cause all lodging houses to be inspected at
intervals of three months or less. All sections and parts of every
lodging house shall also be inspected by a clerk or watchman in the
employ of the owner at least once in every two hours.

8. a. The department shall have power to make supplementary
regulations relating to fire-escapes, protection from fire, and the
installation of sprinkler systems in lodging houses and the fire
department shall have power to make such regulations relating to fire
alarms therein.

b. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to abrogate any powers or
duties vested in the fire commissioner or the fire department of the
city of New York by chapter nineteen of the administrative code of the
said city.