Emergency Action Plan Guide for Homes and Workplaces

An emergency action plan is a documented set of procedures that describes how occupants should respond to an emergency. OSHA requires workplaces to have written emergency action plans, but the same principles apply equally to homes.

Every plan begins with identifying potential emergencies and assessing their likelihood and potential impact. For a home, this means considering fire, natural gas leaks, severe weather, and medical emergencies. For a workplace, it includes all of these plus chemical spills, active threat situations, and structural failures.

The plan must identify evacuation routes—primary and secondary—from every location in the building. Routes should be posted visibly and included in employee or household member orientation. Routes should never require occupants to pass through a hazard area to reach an exit.

Assembly points must be designated at a safe distance from the building. During an emergency, no one should re-enter the building until authorized by the fire department or incident commander. Accountability procedures—head counts, check-in systems—ensure no one is missing.

Plans must be reviewed and practiced at least annually. Practice drills identify weaknesses in the plan, familiarizes everyone with their roles, and reveals problems with signage, exit hardware, or assembly points that need correction.