Sunday, February 16, 2014

Emergency Exit Signs With Lights And More Safety Precautions

By Krystal Branch


Some buildings are more hazardous than others. However, regardless of the its location or purpose, any building needs to take precautions for safety. There are many different situations in which an apartment building, and office building, or any other type of building might need to be evacuated, such as a fire, a blackout, an intruder, or some type of chemical being released into the air. If a building has emergency exit signs with lights, it will be much easier to safely and quickly evacuate people.

When we think of emergencies, one of the first things we think of is a fire. However, a blackout can also be very dangerous, especially in a large building. When a blackout occurs, people have a difficult time finding their way around and reaching the exits. This is a time when lighted signs would be particularly useful.

Here are a few more tips for emergency preparedness:

1. Make sure access to the exit doors is not blocked. Perhaps the exit doors are located in stairwells that are sometimes locked, or perhaps someone has placed a large storage shelf in front of one of the doors. You need to look for these obstacles routinely, in order to remove them. An emergency exit is no good if it is inaccessible when the time comes to use it.

2. Develop an organized plan. When people are frightened, chaos often ensues. Large groups of people moving quickly without purpose can create a hazard that is just as dangerous as the thing they are trying to escape from. To minimize this chaos, you need to develop an organized evacuation plan, and designate certain people to be responsible for different aspects of this procedure.

3. Educate the necessary people about that plan. Once or twice a year, have a meeting of the people in your building who have been designated to serve as leaders in evacuations and/or emergencies. Use this time to make sure these people are familiar with their duties, and to bring them up to date on any changes to the plan. Make sure someone on each floor of the building knows what is going on. If one of these designated leaders leaves or can no longer fill the position, put a new person in the position immediately.

4. Post instructions around the building. Having responsible leaders on each floor will certainly make procedures run more smoothly. However, realistically, in an evacuation situation, you may have people moving so quickly that they do not stick around to hear instructions. This is one of the reasons that it is helpful to post instructions for evacuation around the building. This, combined with the presence if informed leaders, will help to decrease chaos.

We always hope that emergencies will not occur, and that evacuation plans will be unnecessary, never actually being put to use. However, having a plan in place, and taking safety precautions such as installing emergency exits with lights, will help provide you and the other people in your building with peace of mind. It helps to know that an organized plan exists when and if it is ever needed.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment