Does your facility have “egress stairwells” located either within the building or external to the building? If your facility has multi-level structures, you should have an egress arrangement similar to the one shown to the left (whether inside or outside). These emergency egress stairs have some often over looked fire code and OSHA requirements that I would like to mention. The doors leading to these stairs have some specific fire rating requirements, depending on the number of levels the structure has.
1910.36(a)(2) states:
An exit must be separated by fire resistant materials. Construction materials used to separate an exit from other parts of the workplace must have a one-hour fire resistance-rating if the exit connects three or fewer stories and a two-hour fire resistance-rating if the exit connects four or more stories.
Here is more on the specifics for these doors…
To learn how you can determine what your fire doors are rated for, please see my previous article Fire Door Basics.
NFPA 101 – Life Safety Code, Chapter 7 has the same rating requirements for the same levels. OSHA also mirrors NFPA 101 with a couple of other speciation’s for these doors:
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1910.36(a)(3)… Each fire door, including its frame and hardware, must be listed or approved by a nationally recognized testing laboratory. Section 1910.155(c)(3)(iv)(A) of this part defines “listed” and § 1910.7 of this part defines a “nationally recognized testing laboratory.”
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1910.36(d)(1) Employees must be able to open an exit route door from the inside at all times without keys, tools, or special knowledge. A device such as a panic bar that locks only from the outside is permitted on exit discharge doors.
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1910.36(e)(1) A side-hinged door must be used to connect any room to an exit route.
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1910.36(e)(2) The door that connects any room to an exit route must swing out in the direction of exit travel if the room is designed to be occupied by more than 50 people OR if the room is a high hazard area (i.e., contains contents that are likely to burn with extreme rapidity or explode).
For those that have exterior egress stairs, the following requirements also apply:
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1910.36(h)(1) The outdoor exit route must have guardrails to protect unenclosed sides if a fall hazard exists;
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1910.36(h)(2) The outdoor exit route must be covered if snow or ice is likely to accumulate along the route, unless the employer can demonstrate that any snow or ice accumulation will be removed before it presents a slipping hazard;
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1910.36(h)(3) The outdoor exit route must be reasonably straight and have smooth, solid, substantially level walkways; and
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1910.36(h)(4) The outdoor exit route must not have a dead-end that is longer than 20 feet (6.2 m).