The last time you sat in a movie theatre, you might have observed exit signs light up in the darkness. Under OSHA rules, a commercial building must include emergency lights to be considered safe and code-compliant. Inhabitants of your commercial building must know how to find the exits in an emergency, which is why it’s vital to have a fire protection company set up and assess your emergency lighting.

Safe and Timely Evacuations

When the fire alarm goes off, one of the first things individuals do is search for the emergency exits. The faster individuals are able to see the exits, the earlier they’ll be able to evacuate. In the event of a fire, it’s vital that individuals have a chance to evacuate the building before they breathe in excessive amounts of smoke or the fire spreads. To keep your building safe for its inhabitants, you’ll need to ensure your emergency lights work properly at all times.

OSHA Regulations

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is responsible of regulating emergency lights and other fire protection systems to keep commercial buildings secure. In order to keep your building safe and code-compliant, you must follow OSHA regulations. We advise contacting a fire protection contractor to examine or set up brand new emergency lights in your building.

Stairwells Stay Lit

If the power were to go out, you don’t want individuals to be stuck in the stairwells. Stairwells are particularly unsafe during a power outage because individuals are more likely to trip or fall down the stairs. The finest way to keep people protected during a power outage is to set up emergency exit signs. These exit signs are intended to stay illuminated during power outages so they can carefully evacuate during an emergency.

People Are Calmer During Emergencies

During an emergency, people want to know how they can keep themselves secure. When emergency lighting is mounted in hallways and stairwells, people know where they have to go. If you have a store or related commercial building, you have to be aware that a lot of your building’s occupants won’t be familiar with the blueprint. Being in an unfamiliar situation during an emergency is frightening, but it’s less frightening when you are able to clearly notice the exits.

First Responders Can Do Their Jobs

In the occurrence of fire, emergency exit signs aids firefighters move through your structure. First responders are not familiar with the layout of your commercial building, particularly when they are seeing it for the first time throughout a haze of smoke. Luckily, lighted exit signs cut through the darkness and smoke so firefighters are able to do their job. Search and rescue teams will as well require being able to see the emergency exits plainly if they are going into your building to search for survivors.

Types of Emergency Lights

Make sure your emergency lighting is adequately powered is a noteworthy detail when choosing the accurate system for your commercial building. Lawfully, the light have to stay on for a full hour once the main power has gone this increase up to 3 hours. There are two different types of power supply your emergency lighting may rely on:

Self contained – A battery powered system which has a cheaper and faster setup process, greater integrity, (because of the independence of each light) and low maintenance costs. Central battery source – This type of battery lasts anywhere within 5-25 years depending on type, the maintenance is easier than the self contained battery because of the need to access one location, and can operate in a variety of temperatures.

Emergency Lights Testing

Also, the setup of emergency lights, the habitual testing of these lights is vital as well. Premise owners have to make sure that the emergency lighting they have at their area is checked on a habitual basis to make certain that it is functioning appropriately. The testing of the emergency lighting requires checking the batteries and the automatic settings which turn them on the moment the power breakout takes place.