Penalties for not having proper exit routes, or those that are blocked, can have serious consequences for employers. This month, OSHA fined a major retailer upwards of $101,000 for safety violations including repeated blockage of safe exit routes.
An exit route is a continuous and unobstructed path of exit travel from any point within a workplace to a place of safety. According to OSHA, a workplace must have at least two exit routes to permit prompt evacuation of employees and other building occupants during an emergency. More than two exits are required, however, if the number of employees, size of the building, or arrangement of the workplace will not allow employees to evacuate safely. Exit routes must also be located as far away as practical from each other in case one is blocked by fire or smoke.
If the number of employees, the size of the building, its occupancy, or the arrangement of the workplace allows all employees to evacuate safely during an emergency, one exit route is permitted.
It is important to know the design requirements for exit routes on a construction site. These include:
- Exit routes must be permanent parts of the workplace.
- Exit discharges must lead directly outside or to a street, walkway, refuge area, public way, or open space with access to the outside.
- Exit stairs that continue beyond the level on which the exit discharge is located must be interrupted at that level by doors, partitions, or other effective means that clearly indicate the direction of travel leading to the exit.
- Exit route doors must be unlocked from the inside. They must be free of devices or alarms that could restrict use of the exit route if the device or alarm fails.
- Side-hinged exit doors must be used to connect rooms to exit routes. These doors must swing out in the direction of exit travel if the room is to be occupied by more than 50 people or if the room is a high-hazard area.
- Exit routes must support the maximum permitted occupant load for each floor served, and the capacity of an exit route may not decrease in the direction of exit route travel to the exit.
- Ceilings of exit routes must be at least 7 feet, 6 inches high.
- An exit access must be at least 28 inches wide at all points. Where there is only one exit access leading to an exit or exit discharge, the width of the exit and exit discharge must be at least equal to the width of the exit access. Objects that project into the exit must not reduce its width.
- Exits must be separated by fire resistant materials—one-hour fire-resistance rating if the exit connects three or fewer stories and two-hour fire-resistance rating if the exit connects more than three floors.
- Exits are permitted to have only those openings necessary to allow access to the exit from occupied areas of the workplace or to the exit discharge. Openings must be protected by a self-closing, approved fire door that remains closed or automatically closes in an emergency.
To make sure your workplace is compliant with these exit route safety measures, contact our offices at Diversified Safety Services.
