10 Emergency Evacuation Plan Requirements

The first moments after an industrial workplace emergency, such as chemical spills, fires, and equipment failures, are critical to preserving lives. During these scenarios, your teams must know the proper course of action to minimize the impact of the incidents. 

Given the potential hazards of major emergencies in industries such as manufacturing and logistics, it is crucial to establish a comprehensive emergency evacuation plan. In this article, we’ll explore the essential components that must be incorporated into procedures, such as warehouse safety protocols and production plant policies.

What is an emergency evacuation plan?

Emergency evacuation plans outline the complete procedures that your employees must follow to exit the workplace safely in the event of a dangerous situation. They detail assigned safe routes, designated worker responsibilities, additional protocols, and training tailored to the emergency scenario.

Why is it important to set up an emergency evacuation plan?

Industrial workers, particularly those in roles like machining, chemical handling, and load moving, face hazardous materials and conditions that can lead to emergencies.

While a strong safety management system prevents incidents, implementing an emergency evacuation plan prepares your team for the most difficult scenarios. Incorporating the latter helps them remain calm, alert, and mindful in the event of a crisis or failure. Let's discuss further why this framework is valuable.

• Minimize injuries and fatalities: Clear emergency action plans allow teams to exit hazardous work areas and isolate risks quickly, reducing the harm caused.
• Equips teams for incidents: Training crew members for incident response teaches them life-saving skills, such as first aid, disability assistance, and reporting procedures.
• Supports continuous business operations: Effective emergency planning aims to protect equipment, facilities, and workers, minimizing downtime from disruption and driving business continuity.
• Secures safety compliance: Adopting workplace emergency frameworks satisfies occupational safety laws and regulations that require employers to prepare their employees.

Evacuation Plan Requirements

1. Evaluating the situation

Not all emergencies require an evacuation, and some can go differently than others based on the situation. According to OSHA’s Evacuation Plans and Procedures, “a wide variety of emergencies both man-made and natural, may require a workplace to be evacuated. These emergencies include – fires, explosions, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, toxic material releases, radiological and biological accidents, civil disturbances, and workplace violence.”

Different scenarios require different responses. That’s why it’s essential to assess the situation first so you can determine the next steps and respond accordingly.

For example, a forklift tip-over may lead to a warehouse evacuation. However, this will depend on the extent of the accident. Did it create dangerous debris? Did it compromise the stability of surfaces, racks, or other areas? If so, then it's best to evacuate.

2. Conducting training and drills

Having an evacuation plan alone isn’t enough as workers should also know how to execute it when the time comes that it’s needed. By conducting drills like fire training, chemical spill response, and gas leak simulations, you can make them familiar with the procedures when evacuating in different situations or shelter-in-place structures until it’s safe to evacuate.

SC Training (formerly EdApp) is a training software with reliable tools to conduct your drills and training. It has a vetted course library that you can edit and customize as you see fit thanks to its user-friendly authoring tool.

Here, you can include your industrial building’s floor plans, routes, and layout so teams can always have this information with them. With pre-made emergency evacuation training courses like Fire Safety and Warehouse safety, you can easily roll out training and include your company’s plans.

They can be accessed on any device, whether it be a computer, tablet, or smartphone, so learners don’t have to be tied down to their desks just to complete their course.

3. Assisting people during evacuation

While training helps people know what to do in case of emergencies, it’s helpful to have assigned people who can help the move go smoothly. This is also especially needed for people with disabilities who require more assistance and site visitors who aren’t familiar with your production floor plans and routes.

Part of your evacuation plan should include designated individuals who can guide people calmly and safely out of the building. For instance, these assistants could be your machine supervisors and technicians who have mastered the ins and outs of the machine room.

4. Knowing your structure and surroundings

Familiarizing yourself with the building layout, such as the routes, entrances, and exits should be part of your emergency plans. It helps you prepare for evacuation and makes ground movement run smoothly.

Make sure that warehouse floor plans and assembly line layouts are clearly marked and easy to follow. They should also be clear of obstructions and spacious enough to accommodate the anticipated number of people. An alarm system should also be in place to easily notify everyone in the event of an emergency.

Each production facility have different equipment, heavy-vehicles, numbers of floors, types of stairs, doors and windows, and construction methods. Knowing the materials used in the building and its integrity will come in handy as some can be more vulnerable than others. The number of floors will also make a difference, as it can be more difficult to evacuate people from a high-rise building compared to a low-rise one.

Once people are evacuated, it’s also crucial to be aware of the surroundings of your building and determine a safe place where people can assemble afterward. 

5. Accounting for the people onsite

After evacuation, it’s important to account for who was on the building premises, which also includes any plant visitors like contractors, auditors, and suppliers. Having a visitor management system to keep track of those who are present is a good technology that you can invest in to make things easier and automate this process.

It's also good practice for manufacturing and warehouse emergency preparedness to keep attendance tracking systems updated. Whether they're web-based systems, RFIDs, or biometric networks, these tools help account for employees more effectively, especially in times of crisis.

Once everyone is on the assembly grounds, immediately do a headcount and get their information. It’s also important to determine if any individual needs medical attention so they can be attended to immediately.

6. Contacting emergency and rescue services

Calling for emergency assistance is essential for getting external help and mitigating the situation, especially during chemical leaks, structural damages, and machine breakdowns. Relying on people who are trained and equipped to conduct rescues and perform medical procedures is important to avoid any further injuries or hazards.

Whoever is assigned to contact emergency services should have information ready as part of your evacuation plan requirements, such as the address of the location and a thorough description of the situation to get the appropriate teams and resources needed.

Some manufacturing facilities use internal numbers for intercom systems so that coded announcements may be made. Other industrial plants have employees activate manual pull stations or other alarm systems. 

7. Ensuring accessibility to safety equipment and supplies

To facilitate safe emergency evacuation procedures, personnel may have to use personal protective equipment, such as safety gloves, goggles, hard hats, and more. It’s important that employees know where they can be found and are easily accessible when needed.

It’s also essential to stock up on resources such as first aid kits, respirators, and fire-extinguisher, which can be used to help control the situation and provide basic medical care before responders arrive.

8. Shutting down critical operations

For places such as machine shops and conveyor areas, the shutdown of plant operations or critical machines may be required. In these situations, you should have an assigned person or team who will take care of this responsibility and are well-trained and equipped to handle the task.

While this is a crucial task to take, it’s important that individuals assigned are aware of when to flee and evacuate for their safety. By including this in your evacuation plan requirements, you can avoid further casualties or damages in your building and vicinity.

9. Communicating emergencies

In emergency situations, communication is definitely the key to informing everyone of the situation. Alarm systems should be familiar to employees and communication through speaker systems should be clear.

The main things to focus on are taking advantage of the systems and tools that are already available to you, as well as ensuring you have a communication platform that can keep everyone informed.

Making the most of technology such as communication platforms to keep everyone safe can help not only those in the building but also those who might be coming in when an emergency happens.

10. Reviewing your emergency action plan

During emergencies, plans must be flexible enough to meet the changes that occur at worksites, notably for places like storage areas, material handling zones, and production lines.

This is why it’s a good idea to review your plan regularly as part of your evacuation plan for industrial buildings, so you can stay on top of changes and adjustments. Make sure that signages are clear, you’re well-stocked on supplies, and that pathways are safe.

Create agile teams that thrive through challenges with SC Training!

Knowledge and awareness go a long way in industrial work, considering the significant safety hazards that workers face daily. Understanding what to do when things go wrong, rather than just when everything is going right, develops more capable workers who fully grasp the components and factors of their responsibilities.

SafetyCulture’s content library of training courses and procedural checklists, along with its powerful training tools, is made for teams ready to tackle the dynamic nature of industrial work. These solutions help you develop compliant and attentive employees who can effectively manage emergencies, meet demands, and more.