Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 50. HEALTH AND SAFETY

CHAPTER 61. FIRE SAFETY IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Part 1. General Provisions

Application Of Chapter -- Definitions

50-61-103. Application of chapter -- definitions. This chapter applies to the occupancies defined below:

(1) "Assembly occupancy" means the occupancy or use of a building or a structure or any portion of a building or a structure by a gathering of 50 or more persons for purposes such as civic, political, religious, or social functions, recreation, education, instruction, food or drink consumption, or awaiting transportation.

(2) "Business occupancy" means the occupancy or use of a building or a structure or any portion of a building or a structure for office, professional, or service transactions. A business occupancy includes the use of a structure for the storage of records and accounts or for an eating or drinking business establishment with an occupant load of less than 50 persons.

(3) "Educational occupancy" means the occupancy or use of a building or a structure or any portion of a building or a structure by persons assembled for the purpose of learning or receiving educational instruction. An educational occupancy includes but is not limited to any building used for:

(a) educational purposes through the 12th grade for more than 12 hours a week or 4 hours in any 1 day; or

(b) day-care purposes for more than 12 persons.

(4) "Industrial occupancy" means the occupancy or use of a building or a structure or any portion of a building or a structure for assembling, disassembling, fabricating, finishing, manufacturing, packaging, repairing, or processing operations.

(5) "Institutional occupancy" means the occupancy or use of a building or a structure or any portion of a building or a structure by more than five persons harbored or detained to receive medical, charitable, or other care or treatment or by persons involuntarily detained. An institutional occupancy includes but is not limited to:

(a) nurseries for the full-time care of children under the age of 6;

(b) hospitals, sanitariums, or nursing homes; and

(c) mental hospitals, mental sanitariums, jails, prisons, reformatories, or buildings where personal liberties of those harbored or detained are similarly restrained.

(6) "Residential occupancy" means the occupancy or use of a building or a structure or any portion of a building or a structure by persons for whom sleeping accommodations are provided and who are not harbored or detained to receive medical, charitable, or other care or treatment and who are not involuntarily detained. A residential occupancy includes but is not limited to hotels, motels, apartment houses, dwellings, and lodging houses. A residential occupancy does not include a building used only for private residential purposes for a family.

History: En. Sec. 2, Ch. 279, L. 1947; amd. Sec. 10, Ch. 229, L. 1967; amd. Sec. 12, Ch. 187, L. 1977; R.C.M. 1947, 69-1802; amd. Sec. 6, Ch. 387, L. 2003.