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Emergency Action and Fire Prevention Plans for Employees

For employees covered by an emergency action plan or fire prevention plan: know where your plan is and what it covers, report emergencies and respond to the alarm, evacuate and be accounted for, and know the fire hazards of your job.

Based on OSHA 29 CFR 1910.38 (emergency action plans) and 1910.39 (fire prevention plans), general industry · about 3 min read

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Know your plan

Where it is and what it covers

Where to find it

Your employer must have an emergency action plan whenever an OSHA standard in 29 CFR Part 1910 requires one. The plan must be in writing, kept in the workplace and available for you to review. An employer with 10 or fewer employees may tell you the plan orally instead.

What it must cover, at a minimum

How to report a fire or other emergency
How to evacuate, including the type of evacuation and exit route assignments
What employees who stay to run critical plant operations do before they evacuate
How all employees are accounted for after evacuation
What employees with rescue or medical duties do
The name or job title of people you can contact for more information or an explanation of your duties

When your employer reviews it with you

When the plan is developed, or when you are first assigned to a job
When your responsibilities under the plan change
When the plan is changed

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.38(a) · 29 CFR 1910.38(b) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(1) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(2) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(3) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(4) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(5) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(6) · 29 CFR 1910.38(f)(1) · 29 CFR 1910.38(f)(2) · 29 CFR 1910.38(f)(3)

Report, respond and evacuate

Alarm, evacuation and headcount

Report

Your plan spells out how to report a fire or other emergency at your workplace. Learn that procedure before you need it.

Know the alarm

Your employer must have and maintain an employee alarm system that uses a distinctive signal for each purpose and complies with 29 CFR 1910.165. Learn what each signal at your site means, for example evacuate or shelter.

Evacuate

Follow the type of evacuation and the exit route assigned to you in the plan.
Your employer must designate and train employees to assist in a safe and orderly evacuation. Follow their directions.

Be counted

The plan has procedures to account for all employees after evacuation. Go where the plan tells you and report in, so no one goes back into danger looking for you.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(1) · 29 CFR 1910.38(d) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(2) · 29 CFR 1910.38(e) · 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(4)

Fire hazards of your job

The fire prevention plan and you

The plan

When an OSHA standard in 29 CFR Part 1910 requires one, your employer must have a fire prevention plan. Like the emergency action plan, it must be in writing, kept in the workplace and available for you to review, except that an employer with 10 or fewer employees may communicate it orally.

It must include:

A list of all major fire hazards, proper handling and storage of hazardous materials, potential ignition sources and their control, and the fire protection equipment needed for each major hazard
Procedures to control accumulations of flammable and combustible waste
Procedures for regular maintenance of safeguards on heat-producing equipment
The name or job title of the people responsible for maintaining equipment that prevents or controls ignition sources or fires, and for controlling fuel source hazards

What you must be told

When you are first assigned to a job, your employer must tell you the fire hazards you are exposed to, and review with you the parts of the plan you need for self-protection.

A good practice: follow the handling, storage and waste procedures in your plan, and tell the person named as responsible for that equipment when a safeguard on heat-producing equipment is damaged or missing.

Reference: 29 CFR 1910.39(a) · 29 CFR 1910.39(b) · 29 CFR 1910.39(c)(1) · 29 CFR 1910.39(c)(2) · 29 CFR 1910.39(c)(3) · 29 CFR 1910.39(c)(4) · 29 CFR 1910.39(c)(5) · 29 CFR 1910.39(d)

Need proof of training? The full course (12 min) adds practice questions, a job scenario, the final quiz and a certificate your employer can verify.

Take the course

Sources

Fact-checked against the regulation text on October 09, 2026. This certificate records completion of awareness training based on OSHA 29 CFR 1910.38 and 1910.39. It is not an OSHA card or license, and it does not by itself meet the training requirements of 29 CFR 1910.38(e) and (f) and 1910.39(d). Your employer must still designate and train employees to assist in a safe and orderly evacuation of other employees; review its emergency action plan with each employee covered by the plan when the plan is developed or the employee is assigned initially to a job, when the employee's responsibilities under the plan change, and when the plan is changed; inform employees upon initial assignment to a job of the fire hazards to which they are exposed; and review with each employee those parts of the fire prevention plan necessary for self-protection.

This guide explains the rule in plain words. Always read the regulation itself and your employer's site-specific procedures.