Emergency Action Plan (EAP): What It Is, OSHA Requirements and a Template

An emergency action plan (EAP) is a written document that sets out what employers and employees must do to stay safe during a workplace emergency, such as a fire, severe weather, a chemical release or a violent incident. It covers how emergencies are reported, how people evacuate or shelter, who does what and how everyone is accounted for afterward.

In the US, OSHA's standard 29 CFR 1910.38 sets the minimum content of an EAP. This guide explains what the standard requires, how an EAP differs from other plans, how to write one step by step and what to include, with a template outline and examples you can adapt for your own workplace.

Book a call with our team

What is the purpose of an emergency action plan?

When an emergency starts, people have seconds to decide what to do. Without a plan, they hesitate, take the wrong route, go back for belongings or wait for someone to tell them what is happening. An emergency action plan removes that guesswork. It helps you:

• Protect people: everyone knows how to get to safety, whether that means leaving the building or staying inside.

• Reduce confusion: roles are clear, so wardens, managers and first aiders act instead of waiting for instructions.

• Account for everyone: you can quickly confirm who is safe and who may still need help.

• Limit damage: critical equipment and processes are shut down safely where that is needed.

• Support recovery: a calm, recorded response makes it easier to get back to normal operations.

• Meet your legal duties: many employers are required by OSHA to have a plan, and all employers have a general duty to protect their people.

Is an emergency action plan required by OSHA?

Under 29 CFR 1910.38(a), an employer must have an emergency action plan whenever another OSHA standard requires one. Several standards do, including some covering fire protection equipment and certain hazardous substances. In practice, most employers benefit from having a plan whether or not a specific standard applies, because it is the clearest way to show you have thought through how to keep people safe.

Some states run their own OSHA-approved safety and health plans with their own rules. California, for example, has its own emergency action plan regulation. Check your state's requirements as well as federal OSHA.

Written vs oral plans

The standard says an EAP must be in writing, kept in the workplace and available for employees to review. Employers with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally instead. Even small teams often choose to write it down, as a short written plan is easier to share, update and hand to new starters.

The minimum elements OSHA requires

Our fire drill guide covers the basics of 1910.38 from the point of view of practicing an evacuation. When you are writing the plan itself, it helps to turn each required element into a section with specific content.

OSHA minimum element	What to write in your plan
Procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency	How to raise the alarm, who to call (911 and internal contacts), the numbers to use and what information to give
Procedures for emergency evacuation, including the type of evacuation and exit route assignments	When to fully evacuate, partially evacuate or shelter in place, primary and secondary routes for each area, floor plans and assembly points
Procedures for employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before they evacuate	Which roles stay behind, which equipment they shut down, how long they stay and when they must leave
Procedures to account for all employees after evacuation	Who takes the headcount, how it is done, how visitors and contractors are included and how missing people are reported
Procedures for employees performing rescue or medical duties	Who is trained for first aid, CPR or rescue, what they are expected to do and what they must not attempt
The name or job title of every employee who may be contacted for more information about the plan	The plan owner, emergency coordinators and deputies, with how to reach them

Alarm system, training and review

1910.38 also sets three ongoing duties:

• Alarm system: you must have and maintain an employee alarm system that uses a distinctive signal for each purpose, so people can tell an evacuation alarm from a shelter-in-place alert. It must comply with OSHA's employee alarm system standard, 1910.165.

• Training: you must designate and train employees to help with a safe and orderly evacuation of others, such as floor wardens and sweepers.

• Review with employees: you must review the plan with each employee it covers when the plan is developed or the employee is first assigned to the job, when their responsibilities under the plan change, and whenever the plan changes.

Emergency action plan vs emergency response plan vs business continuity plan

These terms are often used interchangeably, but they do different jobs. Most organizations need all three, linked together.

Plan	Main question it answers	Who it is for	Focus
Emergency action plan (EAP)	How do our people stay safe right now?	Every employee	Reporting, evacuation, shelter in place, roles, accounting for people
Emergency response plan (ERP)	How do we respond to and control the incident?	Response teams, managers, trained responders	Containing hazards, coordinating with emergency services, incident command, resources
Business continuity plan (BCP)	How do we keep critical operations running and recover?	Leadership and operations	Critical functions, alternate sites, systems, suppliers, recovery times

A simple way to remember it: the EAP covers the first minutes and protects people, the ERP manages the incident, and the BCP keeps the business going afterward. Your crisis communication plan sits across all three. Our guide to crisis communication explains how to plan those messages.

How to write an emergency action plan step by step

1. Appoint a plan owner and a small team

Name one person who owns the plan and keeps it current, with a deputy. Involve facilities, HR, security, operations and a few frontline employees, as they know how the site really works.

2. Assess the emergencies you could face

List the realistic emergencies for each site: fire, severe weather typical for your region, power or utility failure, chemical release, medical emergencies, active threats and anything specific to your industry. Think about remote and field work too, such as employees driving between sites or working alone.

3. Decide the response for each emergency

For each one, decide whether people should evacuate, shelter in place or lock down. A fire means leaving the building, a tornado warning means moving to an interior refuge area, and an active threat may mean run, hide or fight. Write the trigger for each response so people are not left guessing.

4. Map routes, exits and assembly points

Mark primary and secondary exit routes for every area on a floor plan, along with assembly points, shelter areas and areas of refuge for people who cannot use stairs. Post the floor plans where people will see them.

5. Assign roles and backups

Name the emergency coordinator, floor wardens, sweepers, first aiders and people responsible for critical shutdowns. Give every role a backup, so the plan still works when someone is on vacation or off shift.

6. Set up how you will alert and report

Define how employees report an emergency, how you raise the alarm and how you send instructions to people who are not near the alarm, including remote, field and traveling staff. Decide who is authorized to send an alert and what each message will say.

7. Define how you will account for people

Decide how you will confirm everyone is safe: a roll call at the assembly point, a sign-in list for visitors, or a message asking every employee to reply that they are safe. Agree what happens if someone does not respond.

8. Write it down and share it

Keep the plan short and practical, with checklists people can follow under pressure. Make it available in the workplace and online, review it with every employee and include it in onboarding.

9. Train, test and update

Train the people with named roles, run drills and tabletop exercises, and update the plan with what you learn. Our fire drill guide covers how to plan and run an evacuation drill in detail.

Emergency action plan template

Use this outline as the structure for your own plan. Replace the guidance in each row with details for your site.

Section	What to include
1. Plan details	Organization name, site address, plan owner, date written, date last reviewed, version number
2. Purpose and scope	Which sites, buildings, shifts and employees the plan covers, including remote and field staff
3. Emergency contacts	911, building management, alarm monitoring company, utility companies, emergency coordinator and deputies with phone numbers
4. Roles and responsibilities	Emergency coordinator, floor wardens, sweepers, first aiders, critical shutdown staff, with named backups
5. Reporting an emergency	How employees report a fire or emergency, which numbers to call and what to say
6. Alarms and alerts	Alarm signals and what each one means, plus how alerts reach people by text, phone, email and app
7. Evacuation procedures	When to evacuate, primary and secondary routes, floor plans, assembly points, visitor and contractor procedures
8. Shelter in place and lockdown	Triggers, refuge areas for severe weather, lockdown procedures and how the all-clear is given
9. People who need assistance	Personal evacuation plans, evacuation buddies and areas of refuge
10. Critical operations shutdown	Which equipment or processes are shut down, by whom and when they must leave
11. Accounting for employees	Headcount method, how remote and traveling staff confirm they are safe, how missing people are reported
12. Rescue and medical duties	Trained responders, first aid kits and AED locations, what employees should and should not attempt
13. Emergency-specific procedures	One page each for fire, severe weather, active threat, chemical release, medical emergency and any site-specific risks
14. Communication	Who updates employees, families, customers and media, and through which channels
15. Training and drills	Who is trained, how often drills run and how results are recorded
16. Review and updates	Review schedule, triggers for an early review and a change log

Emergency action plan examples by emergency type

Each emergency needs its own short procedure in your plan. These examples show the kind of detail to include.

Fire

Sound the fire alarm and call 911. Evacuate by the nearest safe exit without using elevators, closing doors behind you. Wardens sweep their areas, and everyone goes to the assembly point to be counted. Nobody goes back inside until the fire department gives the all-clear.

Severe weather

Monitor weather alerts for your area. For a tornado warning, move people to the designated refuge area, typically an interior room or hallway on the lowest floor, away from windows. For hurricanes, winter storms or flooding, decide in advance when you will close the site, tell people to work from home or delay shifts. Our inclement weather policy guide covers how to plan those decisions.

Active threat or workplace violence

Train employees on a simple response such as run, hide, fight, in line with guidance from US federal agencies. The plan should cover how to alert people silently or without drawing attention, lockdown rooms, how to call 911 and how to account for people once the area is safe. Make sure alerts do not tell people to gather somewhere that could put them at risk.

Chemical release

Identify the substances on site and where they are stored. The plan should set out when to evacuate and when to shelter in place, which routes to avoid so people do not move toward the release, who shuts down ventilation or equipment, and when to call specialist responders.

Medical emergency

Call 911, send a trained first aider and bring the nearest first aid kit or AED. Assign someone to meet emergency services at the entrance and guide them to the person. Record what happened and who responded.

How to communicate your emergency action plan

A plan only works if people know it and can receive instructions when it matters.

• Review it with every employee: at onboarding, when their role changes and whenever the plan changes, as OSHA requires.

• Keep it easy to find: post floor plans and short checklists on site, and keep the full plan on your intranet or in an app.

• Use more than one channel for alerts: an alarm is essential on site, but people in noisy areas, on another floor or off site need a message on their phone too.

• Write messages in advance: prepare short alert templates for each emergency so nobody has to write instructions under pressure.

• Translate where needed: make sure the plan and alerts work for employees who speak other languages, and for people with hearing or vision impairments.

Accounting for remote, field and traveling employees

Many plans assume everyone is in the building when the alarm sounds. In reality, some employees are working from home, driving between sites, visiting customers, working alone or traveling. Your plan should say:

• How you will know who is on site and who is not at the time of an emergency.

• How remote and field employees receive alerts that affect them, such as severe weather or an incident near their location.

• How they confirm they are safe, and what happens if they do not respond.

• How lone and field workers can raise an alarm themselves if they are in danger.

• Who checks on traveling employees when there is an incident in the area they are visiting.

How often should an emergency action plan be reviewed?

OSHA requires you to review the plan with employees when it is developed, when their responsibilities change and whenever the plan changes. Beyond that, a good rule is to review the full plan at least once a year, and sooner when:

• You move, open or refurbish a site, or change exits or layouts.

• Headcount, shifts or ways of working change, such as more remote or field work.

• Key people named in the plan leave or change roles.

• A drill, near miss or real incident shows a gap.

• New hazards, equipment or chemicals arrive on site.

• Federal, state or local requirements change.

Keep a change log so you can show what changed, when and why.

How Vismo helps you put your emergency action plan into action

Vismo helps you reach every employee in an emergency, see where they are and confirm they are safe.

• Alerts on every channel: mass notification sends the same instruction by text, voice call, email, app push, Microsoft Teams and Slack at the same time, so it reaches people away from the alarm.

• Fast accounting for people: employees reply with one tap to confirm they are safe, and you see straight away who has not responded.

• Alerts for the right area: geofencing targets alerts to people inside a site or zone, and can alert you when people enter or leave it.

• Remote and field employees: the Vismo app and dedicated devices show employee location on a live map, with SOS alarms and timed check-ins that escalate if one is missed. See lone worker safety.

• Traveling staff: travel security and risk intelligence feeds flag incidents near the people you are responsible for.

• The same procedure every time: Vismo Workflows turns the procedures in your plan into guided, timestamped steps, so whoever is on duty follows the same process.

• A full record: audit trails log every alert, reply and action for your post-incident review.

Before your next evacuation drill, read our fire drill guide. To see how alerts, location and response come together in one place, explore Vismo's critical event management.

Emergency action plan FAQ

What should an emergency action plan include?

At a minimum, OSHA requires procedures for reporting emergencies, evacuation (including the type of evacuation and exit routes), critical operations shutdown, accounting for all employees, rescue and medical duties, and contacts for more information. Most good plans also cover alarms, shelter in place, people who need assistance and how to reach remote staff.

What are the 6 requirements of an emergency plan?

The six minimum elements in OSHA 1910.38 are procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency, emergency evacuation and exit route assignments, employees who stay to operate critical operations, accounting for all employees, employees performing rescue or medical duties, and the names or job titles of people to contact for more information.

What are the 7 steps in an emergency action plan?

There is no single official list, but a practical sequence is: assess your risks, decide the response for each emergency, map routes and assembly points, assign roles, set up alerts and reporting, define how you account for people, and train, test and update the plan.

What are the 3 C's of emergency action?

The 3 C's are Check, Call and Care, a common first aid approach. Check the scene and the person, call 911 or your emergency number, and care for the person until help arrives, within your level of training.

Does every business need an emergency action plan?

OSHA requires one whenever another OSHA standard calls for it, and some states have their own rules. Even where it is not strictly required, a plan is the clearest way to protect employees and show you have planned for emergencies. Employers with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally.

What is the difference between an emergency action plan and an emergency response plan?

An emergency action plan focuses on keeping people safe in the first minutes, through reporting, evacuation, sheltering and accounting for everyone. An emergency response plan covers how trained teams control the incident and work with emergency services.

Make your emergency action plan work on the day

An emergency action plan is only as strong as your ability to reach people and confirm they are safe, wherever they are working. Vismo helps you send the alert, see who has responded and record every step.

Request a demo