Does the Pennsylvania Fire and Panic Act Still Apply?

Mostly no. The Pennsylvania Construction Code Act (Act 45 of 1999) repealed the Fire and Panic Act’s building classes, egress rules, plan approvals and occupancy permits, and the Uniform Construction Code (UCC) has governed new construction, alterations and changes of occupancy since 2004. What survives is a short list of sections, including fire safety rules for family child-care homes, plus the Act’s continuing role in documenting pre-2004 buildings and in waivers for buildings that were never approved.

For owners, buyers and design teams, the Act usually surfaces as an old occupancy permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (L&I), or as a building that never received one. This article explains what the Act required, what replaced it and when, where the old records are kept, and what a legacy L&I permit means for a building as of November 2026.

Is the Pennsylvania Fire and Panic Act Still in Force?

Only in part. Act 45 handled the 1927 law section by section: section 1102(a) repealed most of the Fire and Panic Act’s sections by number, and section 1101 listed the sections that Act 45 would not repeal or affect. The repealed sections are the ones that ran the building program, from the classes of buildings and ways of egress to plan approval and permits for use or occupancy.

The saved sections are narrower. Section 1 (the general requirement that covered buildings be constructed, equipped, operated and maintained for safety from fire and panic), section 13 (prosecutions, with a fine of up to $5,000 on conviction), section 14 (the owner’s liability for damages) and section 15 (enforcement) remain on the books. Part of section 3.6 also survives, and it still sets fire safety rules for one building type.

That building type is the family child-care home: a home, other than the child’s own, where care is provided at any one time to 4, 5 or 6 children unrelated to the operator (section 3.6(g)). Under section 3.6(f.1), last amended in 2022, the home needs a smoke alarm on each floor and in the basement, interconnected so that any alarm that activates can be heard in the indoor child-care space with all intervening doors closed, plus a portable extinguisher rated for Class B fires in the kitchen and cooking areas and exits that meet the requirements for an R-3 occupancy.

Status as shown in the General Assembly’s compiled text of the Fire and Panic Act and in Act 45 sections 1101 and 1102, as of November 2026.

The UCC did not take over every job the old Act did. The UCC is a construction code and Pennsylvania has no statewide fire code, so ongoing fire safety rules for occupied buildings depend on what each municipality adopts; DGA’s article on whether Pennsylvania has a statewide fire code explains how that works.

What the Fire and Panic Act Required

The Fire and Panic Act became law on April 27, 1927 (P.L.465, No.299). Its title, as amended, states the purpose: the safety of people employed, housed or assembled in certain buildings, through required construction, ways of egress, equipment and maintenance, plan examination and approval, and enforcement by L&I, with roles for the Department of Health, school boards and, in cities of the third class, fire chiefs.

The Act does not reach the largest cities. Section 15 provides that nothing in the Act affects buildings in cities of the first class, second class and second class A, the classes that cover Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton, so buildings there answered to city building codes instead.

The working rules sat in L&I’s Fire and Panic regulations, 34 Pa. Code Chapters 49 to 59, whose administrative chapter, Chapter 49, dates from May 19, 1984 in its current form. Section 49.3 required detailed plans of a covered building to be submitted to and approved by L&I’s Bureau of Occupational and Industrial Safety before the building was erected, adapted, remodeled or altered, with any required emergency lighting, fire alarm and fire extinguishing systems shown. Approval of plans and permits for use or occupancy were sections 8 and 9 of the Act, both repealed by Act 45.

L&I sorted buildings into its own classes rather than the occupancy groups used now, and each class carried its own requirements for the number of exits, travel distance, manual or automatic fire alarm, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers and automatic sprinklers. L&I still publishes a one-page summary of those classes and requirements. The right-hand column of the table is DGA’s approximate match to the 2021 IBC, because the two systems do not map one to one.

Classes from L&I’s one-page summary of the Fire and Panic Act classifications and the major safety requirements for each. The IBC column is DGA’s reading, not an official conversion.

What Replaced the Fire and Panic Act, and When

The replacement is the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act, enacted November 10, 1999 (P.L.491, No.45), and the UCC regulations L&I adopted under it. Act 45 did not end the Fire and Panic Act on enactment: the repeal in section 1102 waited until the UCC regulations were in place.

The UCC regulations use April 9, 2004 as the dividing date. Under 34 Pa. Code 403.101(c), the Fire and Panic Act, the Universal Accessibility Act and local building codes still govern new buildings and renovations whose permit application was made, or whose design or construction contract was signed, before that date. Section 403.1(d)(1) kept a permit issued under the earlier regulations valid if construction started within 2 years of issuance, or a shorter period set by municipal ordinance.

Municipalities also had an election window. Section 403.101(a) kept the old law in effect in each municipality until it adopted a UCC ordinance and notified L&I, opted out of local enforcement, or let the initial election period close on August 7, 2004. After that date the old law governed only work grandfathered under Section 403.101(c).

As of November 2026, the UCC is based on the 2021 I-Codes, adopted through Regulation #12-125 and effective January 1, 2026. The comparison below shows how the two regimes answer the same questions.

The largest practical change is who reviews the plans. Under the Fire and Panic Act, L&I reviewed covered buildings across the state outside the excluded cities; under the UCC, L&I says more than 90 percent of municipalities enforce the code locally, and L&I enforces it for most nonresidential buildings where a municipality opted out and for state-owned buildings everywhere (Section 403.141). DGA’s guides to who reviews fire protection plans in Pennsylvania and how fire protection plan review works under the UCC cover the current path.

DGA reviews legacy approvals and prepares code analyses for existing buildings across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Project briefs get confirmation and preliminary code feedback within one business day. See where DGA works →

Who Holds the Old Fire and Panic Act Records

L&I holds the approved plans. According to L&I’s Right-to-Know Law page, the department keeps copies of all construction plans submitted and approved as part of a Fire and Panic or UCC permit application, preserved on 35 mm microfilm, and reproduced copies come out at a much smaller scale than the original sheets.

Those plans are not public records. L&I treats building plans as a security matter and releases them only to the building owner, the design professional of record who designed and sealed the original approved plans, or a third party the owner designates. A buyer, tenant or lender therefore needs the owner’s designation before L&I will release a set.

L&I does not keep the occupancy permits. The department states that it does not retain copies of occupancy permits once they are issued, but it will generate a duplicate permit at the building owner’s request.

Two kinds of records sit elsewhere. Buildings in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton fall outside the Act under section 15, so a Fire and Panic Act search at the state is unlikely to find their earlier approvals, and Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, also called L&I, is a city agency separate from the state department. Permits and certificates of occupancy issued since 2004 in a municipality that enforces the UCC usually came from its building code official or third-party agency, so the municipality is the first place to ask.

A records request belongs early in due diligence. The approved plans show the exits and the alarm, emergency lighting and extinguishing systems L&I accepted, and together with the occupancy permit they document the baseline that any later alteration or change of use starts from.

What a Legacy Labor and Industry Permit Means Today

An L&I occupancy permit issued under the Fire and Panic Act still matters because the UCC protects existing legal occupancies. Under 34 Pa. Code 403.1(d)(3), the legal occupancy of a structure that existed on April 9, 2004 may continue without change, except where the UCC provides otherwise, and the old permit is the usual evidence of what that occupancy was.

That protection ends where new work begins. Section 403.42(a) requires a permit before a commercial building is constructed, enlarged, altered, repaired or changes occupancy, and the work is reviewed under the UCC, including the 2021 IEBC, not under the Fire and Panic Act.

A building that never received an approval follows a separate path. Act 45 section 103 defines an uncertified building as an existing building, other than a residential building, that was not approved for use and occupancy before April 9, 2004 by L&I or by a municipality that was enforcing a building code. Section 902 lets such a building obtain a certificate of occupancy: L&I issues it against a defined list of IBC requirements where L&I has jurisdiction, and the municipal code official issues it under section 902(c) elsewhere.

The Fire and Panic Act enters that list as a waiver ground. L&I may waive an item on the building and egress list or the fire safety list where the owner demonstrates that the building met the corresponding egress or fire safety requirements that existed under the Fire and Panic Act, or where the requirement is technically infeasible, and each waiver must be documented on the certificate of occupancy (section 902(b)(2)).

Section 902(d) adds that this path does not displace the UCC when an uncertified building is renovated, added to, altered or changes use or occupancy. Variances from the section 902(b) list, other than accessibility, go to the Industrial Board where L&I has jurisdiction or the building is state-owned (section 902(b)(4)); DGA’s guide to appeals and variances under the Pennsylvania UCC covers the boards and their hearing timelines.

In practice, the documents decide the path. A building with an L&I occupancy permit and approved plans on microfilm starts from a documented baseline. A nonresidential building with no record of approval from L&I or an enforcing municipality before April 9, 2004 is likely an uncertified building, and section 902 sets what it must show to obtain a certificate of occupancy.

Frequently Asked Questions

This article is general information, not a code determination or legal advice for any building. Statutes, regulations and agency practice change; confirm the status of a building’s approvals and the code that applies with L&I or the municipal building code official.