Skip to Content
The 193rd General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Section 9: Regulations relating to explosives and inflammable materials; reports of quantities and locations; ordinances and by-laws

Section 9. The board shall make rules and regulations for the keeping, storage, use, manufacture, sale, handling, transportation or other disposition of gunpowder, dynamite, crude petroleum or any of its products, or explosive or inflammable fluids or compounds, tablets, torpedoes or any explosives of a like nature, or any other explosives, fireworks, firecrackers, or any substance having such properties that it may spontaneously, or acting under the influence of any contiguous substance, or of any chemical or physical agency, ignite, or inflame or generate inflammable or explosive vapors or gases to a dangerous extent, and may prescribe the location, materials and construction of buildings to be used for any of the said purposes. Such rules and regulations shall require persons keeping, storing, using, selling, manufacturing, handling or transporting dynamite or other high explosives to make reports to the department in such particulars and in such detail that the quantity and location thereof will always be a matter of authentic record in the department. Cities and towns may also make and enforce ordinances and by-laws, not inconsistent with said rules and regulations, relative to the subject matter of this section. Each city or town shall submit a copy of each such ordinance or by-law to the board within ten days after the passage thereof. Any ordinance or by-law regulating blasting operations, or the use, handling, transportation or storage of dynamite or gunpowder, shall not take effect until such ordinance or by-law is approved by the board, except that any such ordinance or by-law that has not been approved or disapproved by the board within ninety days after the receipt thereof shall be deemed to have been approved.