The alarm sounds at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday, announced two weeks in advance. The building empties in six minutes, the floor wardens raise their clipboards, and people drift back inside with their coffee. The report calls the drill a success.
Nobody checked whether the two contractors replacing ceiling tiles on the 14th floor got out. The visitor log stayed on the reception desk. The warden for the east side of the 9th floor works from home on Wednesdays, so nobody swept the meeting rooms there. A woman who uses a walker was helped down by colleagues who had never practiced it. The drill measured how fast able-bodied, forewarned employees can walk downstairs, which is the easiest thing to measure and the least likely to go wrong.
A drill earns its disruption when it tests the parts that fail: the sweep, the count, the people who need help, and the decision about whether leaving is the right call at all.
What the rule asks for, and what it leaves to you
OSHA's emergency action plan standard, 29 CFR 1910.38, sets the floor. Where another OSHA standard triggers it, the employer needs a plan (in writing, unless there are ten or fewer employees) covering reporting, evacuation routes, critical operations, accounting for everyone afterwards, rescue and medical duties, and who can explain the plan. It requires an alarm with a distinctive signal for each purpose, and it requires the employer to designate and train employees to assist in a safe and orderly evacuation. Our briefing on duty of care covers the legal side in more depth.
What 1910.38 does not do is say how often to drill. That usually comes from your state or local fire code, your landlord's fire safety plan or your insurer; New York City's high-rise office rules, for example, have required fire safety directors and floor wardens for decades. If nobody can name the source of your drill frequency, the drill is probably running because it always has.
For small sites that have never written a plan, OSHA's evacuation plans and procedures eTool is a sensible starting point.
Wardens are a staffing plan, not a list of names
Floor warden programs were designed for offices where everyone came in five days a week. Hybrid schedules broke them quietly. A roster that looks complete on paper can leave a floor uncovered every Monday and Friday.
Fix it the way you would fix any shift coverage problem:
- Assign wardens by day, not just by floor. Two or three deputies per area, chosen so at least one is on site on any given day.
- Give the sweep a route. "Check the floor" means different things to different people. A marked plan showing every meeting room, restroom and storage room turns it into a task that can be finished.
- Report to a person, with a time. The warden tells someone specific at the assembly point that the floor is clear. A floor that has not been reported is treated as not clear.
- Say what wardens do not do. They do not re-enter, search behind locked doors or wait for stragglers who refuse to leave. Their job is to report who and where, so the fire department can decide.
Make wardens easy to spot on a crowded sidewalk, with a vest, hat or lanyard.
The count is where drills quietly fail
Federal investigators who studied the World Trade Center evacuation of 11 September 2001 found that many occupants lost minutes before starting down, making calls, gathering belongings and looking for information. Getting out is half the job. Knowing who got out is the other half, and most drills skip it.
The roster is the weak point. In a hybrid office, the HR list of people "based" at a site says little about who is in the building on a given day. Better sources exist, each with gaps:
| Source | What it tells you | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| Badge-in data | Who entered today | Tailgaters; most systems record no exit; unreachable if the access server is in the evacuated building |
| Desk and room booking | Who planned to come in | People who booked and stayed home; walk-ins |
| Visitor management | Visitors who signed in | Only useful if someone takes the list outside |
| Contractor sign-in | Trades, cleaners, technicians | Often a paper book at the loading dock |
| Team leads | Who they saw this morning | Unreliable for large or mixed teams |
None is enough alone. The site's accountability list should merge badge data, the day's visitors and the day's contractors, be readable on paper or a phone at the assembly point, and have one named owner there.
Then deal with the people who are not there. Remote staff who see an evacuation notice will wonder whether it applies to them; a two-way message that lets them mark themselves "not on site" clears them from the unknown pile in minutes. Our article on what to test in mass notification systems covers how to build that poll so the replies can be counted. The goal at the assembly point is a short list of names nobody has seen, not a long list of names nobody has checked.
Time one number every drill: alarm to confirmed count, with the unaccounted list at zero or handed to the fire department. It matters more than evacuation time to whoever is still inside.
People who need assistance
Some employees, visitors and contractors cannot use stairs quickly or at all: wheelchair users, people with heart or lung conditions, someone on crutches for six weeks, someone late in pregnancy. A plan that says "assist as needed" has not planned for them.
Ask, voluntarily. The EEOC has long said employers may ask employees to self-identify if they would need help in an evacuation, provided the request is voluntary and the information goes only to those who need it, such as wardens and responders. Ask at onboarding and yearly, and make temporary conditions easy to report.
Write individual plans. For each person who self-identifies, record the route, the helpers, where they will wait if they cannot descend, and how responders will learn they are there. Review it with the person. They know their needs better than any template does.
Give buddy systems depth. One buddy is not a plan if that buddy is out on Thursdays. Assign at least two, and practice.
Evacuation chairs. Stair descent devices work only with operators who have used them on your stairs, and only if the chair is where the plan says. Train more operators than seems necessary.
Areas of refuge. Some buildings have designated areas of refuge at stair landings, with two-way communication to the fire command station. Many sprinklered buildings have none, because codes often waive the requirement. If someone will wait on a landing, the fire department needs to know who and where.
Elevators. Most recall to the lobby when the fire alarm activates and are not for occupant use. A few newer towers have elevators designed for evacuation. Know which you have, and do not let the drill teach the wrong habit.
With their agreement, include people who need assistance in drills. A plan never practiced with the person it exists for is a guess.
Leave, stay, or move within the building
Not every alarm means "get out," yet a program that only practices evacuation teaches people that every emergency ends on the sidewalk.
| Hazard | Usual default | Who usually decides | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire or smoke | Evacuate; in some high-rises, the fire floor and nearby floors first | Alarm system, fire safety director, fire department | People on other floors leaving early and crowding the stairs |
| Tornado warning | Interior rooms on the lowest floor, away from windows | Site lead, on an NWS warning | Nobody having decided in advance which rooms qualify |
| Outdoor chemical release | Shelter in place, air handling off | Authorities, site lead | Facilities not knowing how to shut down the air handlers quickly |
| Earthquake | Drop, cover and hold on; evacuate after shaking if damaged | Individuals, then site lead | People running for exits while the building is still shaking |
| Disturbance or threat outside | Stay in, secure entrances | Security, site lead | An automatic evacuation sending people toward the problem |
Because 1910.38 calls for a distinctive signal for each purpose, check what yours are. Many buildings have one alarm tone and rely on voice announcements for everything else, which works only if those use plain language and people have heard them before. Run at least one shelter-in-place drill a year so the instruction to stay is as familiar as the instruction to go.
Vary the drill
Same day, same time, same stairwell, everyone warned: a fast exit and very little information. Rotate instead:
- Blocked exit. Mark the main stairwell unusable and see whether people know the second route.
- Unannounced. Leadership knows, and people who need assistance are prepared in advance.
- Off-hours. Night shifts, weekend staff and cleaning crews are often the least trained.
- Missing person. Ask one volunteer to stay at their desk, with an observer, and time how long the count takes to notice.
- Shelter in place. Time it from the announcement to everyone in position.
Drill observation checklist
Station observers at fixed posts with a stopwatch and this list. Debrief within the hour.
Floors and stairwells
- Time from alarm to first movement, and to the floor reported clear
- Wardens followed the sweep route, including restrooms and small rooms
- People left belongings behind and stayed off the elevators
- Doors closed behind evacuees; stairwells free of stored items
- Anyone turning back, stopping on landings or blocking the flow
Assistance
- Each person with an individual plan had helpers present
- Evacuation chairs were in place, and operators could use them
- Anyone waiting in a refuge area was reported to the assembly point with a location
Assembly point
- Assembly point was safe from traffic and far enough from the building
- Visitor and contractor lists left the building with someone
- Accountability lead had the merged list on paper or phone
- Time from alarm to confirmed count, and the length of the unaccounted list at 10 and 20 minutes
- Remote staff marked themselves off site without clogging the count
Afterwards
- Re-entry waited for an explicit all-clear
- Every finding has a named owner and a date
- Individual plans and the warden roster updated before the next drill
