Emergency planning · Rochester, New York
Emergency evacuation and shelter in place plans
Written plans built around your property's footprint, your location, and your people, by a firm that also designs the notification system the same standard requires you to have.
- Occupant Emergency Plans and shelter in place protocols
- Every element the federal standard requires, then past them
- We design the alarm system the same rule requires
- NYS Dept. of State licensed
The plan and the alarm are one requirement, bought from two companies
Most organizations end up with an evacuation plan written by a safety consultant who cannot install anything, and a notification system installed by a contractor who has never read the plan. The federal standard that requires the written document requires an employee alarm system in the same section, requires you to designate and train people to assist the evacuation, and requires the plan to be reviewed whenever anything about it changes.
Not having a plan can result in confusion, injury, and damage to your facility. Having one that nobody has trained against, tied to a notification system nobody designed for it, arrives at much the same place slightly more slowly. We write the plan and design the system it depends on, which is the reason the two agree.
The floor, not the ceiling
What an emergency action plan is required to contain
Under the federal emergency action plan standard, 29 CFR 1910.38, an employer must have an emergency action plan whenever another OSHA standard in that part requires one. The plan must be in writing, kept in the workplace, and available to employees for review. An employer with ten or fewer employees may communicate it orally instead.
The standard sets out six minimum elements. They are worth knowing individually, because a plan missing any one of them is a plan that does not meet the rule.
Procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency. In practice this is the question of who calls what, from where, and what happens when the person who normally does it is the person who is hurt.
Procedures for emergency evacuation, including the type of evacuation and exit route assignments. This is where the floor plan meets reality: which people use which exits, and what they do when the nearest one is the one they are trying to get away from.
Procedures for employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before they evacuate. Somebody has to shut things down safely, and that person needs to know precisely how far to go and exactly when to stop going.
Procedures to account for all employees after the evacuation. Muster points, area sweeps, roll calls, evacuation wardens. This is the element most plans handle worst and the one the fire department will ask about first.
Procedures for employees performing rescue or medical duties. Most organizations rely on local public resources for this, and a good plan states that explicitly rather than leaving it to be assumed by whoever is reading it at the time.
The name or job title of every employee who can be contacted by anybody needing more information about the plan, or an explanation of their own duties under it.
And what we put in beyond that minimum
- Conditions under which an evacuation would be necessary
- Conditions under which it may be better to shelter in place
- A clear chain of command, and the named person authorized to order an evacuation or shutdown
- Specific evacuation procedures, including routes and exits
- Specific evacuation procedures for high rise buildings, for employers and employees
- Procedures for assisting visitors and employees to evacuate, particularly those with disabilities or who do not speak English
- Designation of which employees, if any, remain after the alarm to shut down critical operations or perform other duties before evacuating
- A means of accounting for employees after an evacuation
- Special equipment for employees
- Appropriate respirators
What we handle
Planning, training, and the systems underneath
Occupant Emergency Plans
A written plan tailored to your property's footprint, location, and employee needs, covering every element the standard requires and the operational detail it does not.
Shelter in place protocols
The conditions under which staying inside is safer than leaving, who is authorized to make that call, where people go, and how long they can reasonably remain there.
High rise procedures
Specific evacuation procedures for high rise buildings, written for employers and employees, where phased evacuation and stairwell management replace everybody simply heading for a door.
Assisted evacuation
Procedures for assisting visitors and employees who need help, particularly those with disabilities or who do not speak English. This is the part of a plan that gets written last and matters most.
Training and plan review
Designating and training the employees who assist an evacuation, and running the review cycle the standard requires when the plan changes, when duties change, or when somebody is newly assigned.
Notification and alarm integration
The employee alarm system the same standard requires, with a distinctive signal for each purpose, plus mass emergency notification and voice evacuation. Designed against the plan rather than alongside it.
How a plan gets written
Five phases, and the document is only phase two
A plan that exists as a PDF nobody has read is a compliance artefact rather than a plan. The phases either side of writing it are what turn it into something that works at two in the afternoon on a bad day.
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01
Walk the property
Footprint, exits, stairwells, assembly areas, and the specific hazards of your location and operation. Also who is actually in the building, including the people nobody counts.
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02
Draft the plan
Written to the standard's six required elements and past them, tailored to your footprint, your location, and your employee needs rather than assembled from a template with your name inserted.
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03
Review it with the people who execute it
The person named as authorized to order an evacuation should find that out during a meeting, not during an evacuation. Same for whoever is expected to sweep a floor or shut down a process.
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04
Train
Designated employees trained to assist a safe and orderly evacuation of everybody else, which the standard requires and which is the difference between a named warden and a working one.
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05
Review on the cycle the rule sets
With each covered employee when the plan is developed or they are first assigned, when their responsibilities change, and whenever the plan itself changes. Buildings and org charts move constantly.
The obligations nobody quotes
The written plan is one paragraph of the standard
Section 1910.38 does not stop at the document. Three further obligations sit in the very same section, and they are the ones organizations most often discover during an inspection rather than before one. Every safety consultant will sell you the first. Very few can help with the rest.
The employer must have and maintain an employee alarm system, using a distinctive signal for each purpose. That is a fire alarm and notification question, and it happens to be one we can answer, because we design, install, and inspect those too.
The employer must designate and train employees to assist in the safe and orderly evacuation of everybody else. Wardens, sweepers, floor marshals. Naming somebody in a document is not the same act as training them.
The plan must be reviewed with each covered employee when it is developed or they are newly assigned, when their responsibilities under it change, and when the plan itself changes. A plan written once in 2018 satisfies none of that.
The other decision
When leaving the building is the wrong answer
Evacuation is the reflex, and it is not always correct. A chemical release outside, severe weather, or a threat in the area can each make the parking lot considerably more dangerous than the building somebody is standing in. A plan that only knows how to empty a building has exactly one answer to every possible question.
We write the conditions for both. Just as importantly, we write down who decides and how that decision reaches everyone in the time actually available. A clear chain of command, with a named person authorized to order an evacuation or a shutdown, is the difference between a decision and an argument in a corridor.
- Conditions under which evacuation is necessary
- Conditions under which sheltering in place is safer
- A named person authorized to order either
- How the decision reaches every occupant, and how quickly
- Where people go, and how long they can stay there
- How the all clear is given, and by whom
Around Rochester and Western New York
Places we have written plans for
Many buildings, one procedure, and a population that turns over every year and has never seen the plan. Notification has to reach people who are not all in the same structure.
Where the answer is frequently to defend in place rather than empty the building, and where a meaningful share of occupants cannot evacuate themselves under any circumstances.
Processes that cannot simply be walked away from, which is exactly what the standard's critical operations element is about, plus shift patterns that change who is in the building by the hour.
Phased evacuation, stairwell capacity, and the reality that emptying twelve floors at once is usually slower and more dangerous than emptying the right three.
Where no single employer controls the building, and the plan has to work across tenants who have never met, each with their own headcount and their own idea of a muster point.
Long travel distances, racking that changes the routes without anybody updating a drawing, and a constant population of drivers and contractors who do not appear on any roll call.
Why GSMG
The only firm in the conversation that can do all four
Planning, training, and execution
GSMG employs experts in the planning, training, and execution of emergency evacuation plans and shelter in place protocols. Not a template vendor, and not a safety generalist who has never stood in your building.
We build the alarm system too
The same standard that requires your plan requires an employee alarm system with a distinctive signal for each purpose. Our licensed engineers design fire alarm, voice evacuation, and mass notification, so the plan and the system are drawn by the same people.
Written for your footprint
We tailor the plan to your property's footprint, its location, and your employees' actual needs. A plan that could apply to any building applies usefully to none of them.
The hard occupancies
Our team has experience with college campuses, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and other commercial businesses. Those are the occupancies where evacuation planning is genuinely difficult rather than merely required.
Common questions
Before you call
Is my business legally required to have an evacuation plan?
Under 29 CFR 1910.38, an employer must have an emergency action plan whenever another OSHA standard in that part requires one, so the honest answer depends on which other standards apply to your operation. For a great many general industry employers, at least one does. Where a plan is required it must be in writing, kept in the workplace, and available to employees for review, unless you have ten or fewer employees, in which case it may be communicated orally. Separately, your insurer, your lease, an accreditation body, or your local fire code may require one regardless of the federal position.
What has to be in the plan at a minimum?
Six elements. Procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency. Procedures for emergency evacuation, including the type of evacuation and exit route assignments. Procedures for employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before evacuating. Procedures to account for all employees after the evacuation. Procedures for employees performing rescue or medical duties. And the name or job title of every employee who can be contacted for more information about the plan or an explanation of duties under it.
How often does the plan need to be updated?
The standard sets triggers rather than an interval. The plan must be reviewed with each covered employee when the plan is developed or when that employee is first assigned to a job, when their responsibilities under the plan change, and when the plan itself changes. In practice that means a renovation, a reorganisation, a new tenant, or a change of the person authorized to order an evacuation should all send you back to the document.
Evacuation or shelter in place. Who decides?
Somebody named in the plan, before the day it is needed. The most common failure we find is not a missing procedure but a missing decision maker, so the choice gets made by whoever happens to be standing in the lobby with the loudest voice. We write the conditions for each and identify who holds the authority to call it, including who holds it when that person is away.
What about visitors and people who need assistance?
They get their own procedures, and they should. We write specific provisions for assisting visitors and employees to evacuate, particularly those with disabilities or who do not speak English. Visitors are also the group most often absent from the accounting procedure, which is a problem you only notice while standing in a parking lot trying to work out whether everybody is out.
Do we need something different for a high rise?
Yes, and we write those specifically. High rise evacuation is rarely a matter of everyone leaving at once. It involves phased movement, stairwell capacity, refuge areas, elevator behaviour, and coordination with the fire department's own procedures. The plan has to be written for both employers and employees, because they have different jobs during it.
Can you supply the alarm system as well as the plan?
Yes, and that is the main reason to bring this work to us rather than to a safety consultancy. The same standard requires a maintained employee alarm system with a distinctive signal for each purpose. Our New York State licensed Professional Engineers design fire alarm, voice evacuation, and mass emergency notification systems, and our NICET technicians inspect them. The plan and the system get built by one firm, which is why they end up saying the same thing.
Send us a floor plan
A floor plan and a rough headcount is enough to begin. If you already have a plan and simply want somebody to tell you honestly whether it holds up, that is a shorter conversation and a useful one.