Every facility is required to have evacuation plans to meet any one of a series of potential issues. These plans must be capable of evacuating all personnel, through several different means based upon the emergency. OSHA sets guidelines for acceptable safety routes in standard 1910.36.
OSHA requires, first and foremost, that an exit be “permanent,” and the number of available exits must be “adequate.” The permanence requirement is easy, but how do you know if you have enough exits in your evacuation plan? Well, OSHA refers you to: NFPA 101-2009, Life Safety Code, or IFC-2009, International Fire Code. From there, you need to determine the number of employees, the size and occupancy requirements of your building, and the arrangement of your workplace. From there, you need to determine how many exits would be required to evacuate your employees, and how many would be required if one or multiple of those exits are blocked.
Further, you need to examine your actual exits. Are they using fire resistant doors? Are there stairs? Are the exits unlocked from the inside, but not accessible from the outside? Do you use side-hinge doors? What kind of alarm system do you have; will it lock doors if the power fails? If the alarm is not tripped, can the doors still be opened? Are the minimum height and width requirements met by your exits? What about exit windows – do you have any? Are they up to code?
After determining if your exits are acceptable and meet safety guidelines, and you have an adequate number of exits with adequate routes planned out, you still need to ensure that your evacuation routes are printed and properly displayed in your facility. If not, your employees will still be at risk in the event of an emergency. You also need to ensure that your evacuation routes can handle any emergency which may arise, including those caused inside and outside of your workspace.
If you are having difficulty ensuring that your facility is up to code and safe for your employees, take a look at what we at PF Safety offer. If you think a second opinion from a professional firm of experts makes sense for you, contact us and we will get to work making sure you are compliant.
