It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 23-28.1-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 23-28.1 entitled "Fire Safety Code--General Provisions" is hereby amended to read as follows:

{ADD 23-28.1-2. Purposes -- Rules of construction -- General application. -- ADD} (a) This Code shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies.

(b) The underlying purposes and policies of these chapters are:

(1) To simplify, clarify and modernize the law governing fires and fire prevention;

(2) To specify reasonable minimum requirements for fire safety in new and existing buildings and facilities, except in private dwellings occupied by one, two (2) or three (3) families, in the various cities and towns in this state; and

(3) Except as provided in subdivision (5) of this subsection, to permit the cities and towns to enact ordinances and orders relating to fire safety provided those ordinances and orders impose requirements equal to, additional to, or more stringent than those contained in this code. Any ordinance or order relating to fire safety enacted by any city or town shall be prospective in its application and shall be enacted after public hearing. The city or town shall cause printed notices of the time, place, and subject matter of the hearing to be posted in three (3) public places in the city or town, for three (3) weeks next preceding the time of the hearing, and shall advertise in a newspaper circulated in the city or town, if any there be, at least once a week for the same period of time;

(4) Jurisdiction for the interpretation of any city or town ordinance or order relating to fire safety shall be in the division of fire safety; provided, however, that the responsibility for the enforcement of the ordinance or order shall be with the local authorities and petitions for variations from the ordinance or order shall be heard by the state fire safety board of appeal and review in the manner prescribed in chapter 28.3 of this title.

(5) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, no city or town may enact any ordinance or order relating to the requirement for the {ADD handling of explosives pursuant to chapter 23-28.28 or for the ADD} installation of, or specifications for, the fire alarm sections of this code, the fire protection systems as prescribed by chapter {DEL 27.3 DEL} {ADD 23-28.25 ADD} of this title, which chapter shall exclusively govern the requirements for the installation of, and specification for, fire protection systems {ADD and handling of explosives ADD} . All such ordinances or orders relating to the requirements for the installation of and specifications for such fire protection systems {ADD or the handling of explosives ADD} heretofore enacted by any city or town are of no force and effect.

(c) In this code, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Words in the singular number include the plural, and in the plural include the singular; and

(2) Words of the masculine gender include the feminine and the neuter and, when the sense so indicates words of the neuter gender may refer to any gender.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.