In the event of an accident or emergency, a well designed evacuation plan can be the difference between a minor disruption in business operations and a tragedy. OSHA regulates evacuation routes with standard 1910.36. When designing your evacuation route, it is important to keep this standard in mind, but not to loose sight of practicality in so doing.

The primary concern with evacuation plans is that there are an “adequate” number of “permanent” exits. There are a number of factors which determine adequacy, including the number of employees, arrangement of the workspace, size of the workplace, and occupancy requirements of the workplace. With all of these in mind, you can begin to think about how your evacuation routes should flow – what floors have exits, which stairwells lead to which evacuation points, and how employees can leave your facilities.

Once you have mapped this all out, you need to properly print out and post your evacuation routes in your workplace. When posting your evacuation plan, you need to make certain that it is viewable and easily accessible to employees and that the employees have been notified of their placement.

Finally, you need to ensure your alarms and exits, including doors and windows, are up to code. You need to verify that the exits are accessible both before and after an alarm is tripped, and check how the doors and windows can be accessed from the outside in the event of an emergency.

If you have any questions about your evacuation plans, please contact us to ensure you are up to code and that your facility is safe for your employees. if you have any other tips to consider in relation to evacuation plans, please leave a comment.