Emergency escape and evacuation is the urgent immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an ongoing threat or a hazard to lives or property.
Emergency evacuation plans are developed to ensure the safest and most efficient evacuation time of all expected residents of a plant, structure, city, or region. A benchmark “evacuation time” for different hazards and conditions is established. These benchmarks can be established through using best practices, regulations, or using simulations, such as modelling the flow of people in a building, to determine the benchmark. Proper planning will use multiple exits, contra-flow lanes, and special technologies to ensure full, fast and complete evacuation.
Consideration for personal situations which may affect an individual’s ability to evacuate is taken into account, including alarm signals that use both aural and visual alerts, and also evacuation equipment such as sleds, pads, and chairs for non-ambulatory people. Proper planning will implement an all-hazards approach so that plans can be reused for multiple hazards that could exist.
Means of escape shall be provided from all enclosed and regularly manned areas of the facility, with a minimum of two alternative escape routes arranged from any working area where a single route is in excess of 6.1 meters long, where more than five people are likely to be grouped at the same time and where there is a requirement to evacuate from an elevated platform with a length of over 6.1 meters.
Escape routes shall not be obstructed in any way. All escape routes on the facility shall be well marked/ identified and clearly marked on drawings. Two means of escape from a given location shall be provided by escape routes.
Escape routes shall allow the easy transit of a stretcher bearing a person. Escape doors shall open in the direction of escape be provided with push bar opening mechanism, be self-closing and fire proofed to the required enclosure fire rating. Kick out panel may be provided from enclosures as the secondary means of escape.
All means of access and egress shall be so constructed as to allow a person wearing self-contained breathing apparatus to pass through without hindrance.
Passive and active fire protection shall be used, if necessary, on escape routes for the protection of personnel.
The escape route shall not direct personnel escaping from a non-hazardous area through a Zone 1 or 2 hazardous area as far as it is practical. All escape routes shall direct personnel to a muster point. The minimum clearance height of any escape route shall be 2.3 meters and width shall be 0.750 meters. All personnel shall be trained in the use of Escape Routes in accordance with all design events.
