Creating a Safe Egress Pathway
When emergency strikes, is your workplace ready?
Workplace fires can cause tragic loss, both in life and property, which often can be avoided! Some common examples of workplace fires could include damaged electrical outlets or cords or overloaded outlets and circuits, as well as faulty machinery or appliances. These issues can be avoided with regular inspections and maintenance as well as replacing any faulty equipment as needed.
As important as it is to provide your employees with a fire safe facility, accidents can still happen, so having a clear emergency exit strategy can help avoid tragic loss.
Defining the Exit Pathway
As the primary way to exit the building in an emergency, the exit pathway must be clearly defined, easy to follow and totally safe. Installing directional signage throughout the building which points towards the exit pathway ensures building occupants can quickly find and make their way towards the exit pathway. As critical emergency egress signage, these exit signs must remain visible in all lighting conditions, and should have a fail-safe power source. For this reason, luminous egress path markings are required by international building, fire and life safety codes to provide a totally fail safe source of emergency egress lighting.
Clearing the Exit Pathway
Once occupants have safely found their way to the emergency egress pathway, it is critical they can safely navigate the path in all lighting conditions. To ensure a safe egress pathway, remove any obstacles such as trash or storage. The exit pathway must remain clear of obstacles at all times to ensure a safe emergency exit.
For any items along the exit pathway that cannot be removed, such as pipes, they must be clearly marked so occupants are made aware of the potential dangers. According to the International Building and Fire Codes, any obstacle below 6 feet 6 inches and projecting more than 4 inches into the egress pathway must be marked with a luminous egress path marking. For this purpose the luminous egress path marking must be a pattern of equal bands of black and luminous material, to draw attention to these obstacles in all lighting conditions.
Marking the Exit Pathway
Use of the building’s elevator is not an option in an emergency such as a fire, so making the stairwells as safe as possible is a number one priority! Non-slip photoluminescent stair nosings not only provide anti-slip protection but provide critical step-edge visibility in all lighting conditions, which contributes to a safer and quicker emergency egress. Additionally, luminous egress path markings, like handrail strips can aid in providing a safe egress in an emergency situation.
Floor identification signs communicate critical egress information, such as the location of direction to the exit discharge, and should be applied at every landing throughout the exit stairwell for the safety and information of building occupants. These signs must remain visible in all lighting conditions.
Why Chose Luminous Egress Path Markings?
Luminous egress path markings are an excellent, code compliant choice for increasing and maintaining egress safety in any building! These emergency lighting systems gain a charge from surrounding light sources and do not require any electricity to turn on, so once the power in the building goes out, luminous egress signage turns on, and can glow for hours in the dark making it totally failsafe. Additionally, the light given off by luminous egress path markings does not cast any shadows and can cut through smoke, ensuring excellent visibility in all conditions.
When emergency strikes, your workplace can be expertly prepared to make a safe egress, with luminous egress path markings from ecoglo®! Our industry leading photoluminescent technology provides fail-safe emergency lighting, in all conditions and our maintenance free products take the worry out of emergency egress. Our full line of luminous egress path markings includes everything you need to create a safe and reliable emergency exit pathway in your building.