Emergency plan rules in Pennsylvania
2 license types researched, regulated by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Group home / residential care home
Licensed in Pennsylvania as Personal Care Home (PCH), by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
55 Pa. Code §2600.107 (emergency preparedness); §2600.132 (fire drills)
An unannounced fire drill at least once a month, and a fire drill during sleeping hours at least once every six months. Each drill activates the fire alarm, uses alternate exits and does not use elevators. Separately, a fire safety expert from outside the home must conduct a fire safety inspection and fire drill every year and set in writing the time within which the home must be evacuated.
The written emergency procedures must be reviewed, updated and submitted to the local emergency management agency every year.
Authority: Local emergency management agency
Cadence: Annually
The administrator must have a copy of the municipality's emergency preparedness plan and be familiar with it.
55 Pa. Code §2600.107(a)The written emergency procedures must include contact information for each resident's designated person; a plan to provide each resident's emergency medical information while keeping it confidential; telephone numbers for the local and State emergency management agencies and local resources for relocation housing; means of transportation; staff duties, specific to each resident's needs, during evacuation, during transportation and at the emergency location; and alternate means to use during a utility outage.
55 Pa. Code §2600.107(b)The home must keep a three-day supply of nonperishable food and drinking water for residents.
55 Pa. Code §2600.107(c)Each year a fire safety expert from outside the home must conduct a fire safety inspection and a fire drill. The expert sets in writing the time within which the home must be evacuated, and each drill is recorded with the details §2600.132 requires.
55 Pa. Code §2600.132- Pennsylvania licenses Personal Care Homes (55 Pa. Code Ch. 2600) and Assisted Living Residences (Ch. 2800) separately. Their emergency-preparedness and fire-drill sections read the same, but the plan must cite the chapter for the home's own license.
Reviewed 2026-09-28
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in Pennsylvania as Assisted Living Residence (ALR), by Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
55 Pa. Code §2800.107 (emergency preparedness); §2800.132 (fire drills)
An unannounced fire drill at least once a month, and a fire drill during sleeping hours at least once every six months. Each drill activates the fire alarm, uses alternate exits and does not use elevators. Separately, a fire safety expert from outside the residence must conduct a fire safety inspection and fire drill every year and set in writing the time within which the residence must be evacuated.
The written emergency procedures must be reviewed, updated and submitted to the local emergency management agency every year.
Authority: Local emergency management agency
Cadence: Annually
The administrator must have a copy of the municipality's emergency preparedness plan and be familiar with it.
55 Pa. Code §2800.107(a)The written emergency procedures must include contact information for each resident's designated person; a plan to provide each resident's emergency medical information while keeping it confidential; telephone numbers for the local and State emergency management agencies and local resources for relocation housing; means of transportation; staff duties, specific to each resident's needs, during evacuation, during transportation and at the emergency location; and alternate means to use during a utility outage.
55 Pa. Code §2800.107(b)The residence must keep a three-day supply of nonperishable food and drinking water for residents.
55 Pa. Code §2800.107(c)Each year a fire safety expert from outside the residence must conduct a fire safety inspection and a fire drill. The expert sets in writing the time within which the residence must be evacuated, and each drill is recorded with the details §2800.132 requires.
55 Pa. Code §2800.132- Pennsylvania licenses Assisted Living Residences (55 Pa. Code Ch. 2800) and Personal Care Homes (Ch. 2600) separately. Their emergency-preparedness and fire-drill sections read the same, but the plan must cite the chapter for the residence's own license.
Reviewed 2026-09-28
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Everything else we’ve researched about Pennsylvania
Same state, the problems either side of this one. Each carries its own statute and the date we last checked it.
- Pennsylvania deposit return law & letterThe landlord's deadline to return a deposit, and the itemized letter.
- Pennsylvania deposit demand letterFor the tenant: whether the landlord is late, and by how many days.
- Pennsylvania deposit deduction rulesWhat may fairly come out of a deposit, prorated by useful life.
What this page is
The requirements Pennsylvania places on a facility emergency preparedness plan, taken from the state’s own rules rather than a national template. Where we have confirmed something against primary text it is stated plainly; where we have not, it says so and names what to check. Nothing here is inferred from what other states do.
The part that is the same everywhere
The federal layer does not vary by state, and it is narrower than it is usually described. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 does not bind every employer on its own — by its applicability paragraph it governs an emergency action plan whenever another OSHA standard requires the employer to have one, and it then settles what that plan must contain. The CMS emergency preparedness rule applies by certified provider type rather than by building. That layer, plus the exit-route, alarm and first-aid rules and the fire code’s plan structure, is covered in the main crash course rather than repeated on all fifty state pages.
Write the plan
The Emergency Plan Builder produces the document itself. It reads the same research as this page, but it does not yet carry every requirement here into the plan it writes, so check the plan against this page before you rely on it for Pennsylvania. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.