Emergency Exit Signs With Lights And More Safety Measures

By Krystal Branch


If you are in charge of a building, whether it is an office building, an apartment building, or any other type, it is your responsibility to have emergency procedures and safety precautions in place. There are all kinds of situations where these things might be necessary: an intruder, a fire, a power loss, or any other situation where the building might need to be evacuated. Emergency exit signs with lights, for instance, are a wonderful thing to have in place to increase safety in the even of an evacuation.

When you ask some one to things of an example of an emergency, fire is often the first thing that comes to mind. Blackouts can happen just as easily, however, and they can be just as dangerous. A crowd of people trying to find their way to the exits in a large building with many flights of stairs could turn into complete chaos. This is one situation where lighted emergency signs would be helpful.

Here are some other tips for preparing your building for emergencies:

1. Be sure that all exits are available and accessible. Oftentimes, emergency exits are blocked by large garbage cans or storage shelves, because they are not used very often. Sometimes they are located in locked stairwells. This renders them completely useless, as no one has time to fumble with keys or move heavy equipment out of the way when trying to make a quick getaway. Make sure these exits are accessible at all times.

2. Develop an organized evacuation plan. When people become frightened, they often erupt into chaos. This can make a dangerous situation even more dangerous. In order to prevent, or at least mitigate, chaos, create a plan that will tell people specifically where to go and how to get out of the building. There should be at leas one person from every floor who is a leader and is particularly familiar with this plan.

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 written and illustrated instructions. In a true disaster, there may be people who are unable to hear the verbal instructions or who are too panicked to focus. Having written instructions will help to increase the likelihood that they will follow the plan. These instructions can supplement the ones given aloud by the designated leaders. This decreases the chance of dangerous chaos erupting.

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.




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