Emergency Action Plan Templates by Industry
When another OSHA standard requires an Emergency Action Plan, 29 CFR 1910.38 defines the minimum elements. Employers with more than 10 employees generally must keep it in writing; employers with 10 or fewer employees may communicate it orally. Choose your industry for a practical starting point built around the emergencies your team is more likely to face.
Review required before use. These templates are educational starting points, not legal advice or OSHA approval. Adapt each plan to your workplace, applicable standards, local requirements, and emergency-response arrangements.
Select your industry
Each template provides a starting point built around the hazards and emergency scenarios your team is most likely to face.
Construction EAP
Active construction sites present rapidly changing conditions, multiple contractors working simultaneously, and severe hazards like heights, trenches, and heavy equipment. This EAP provides a framework for coordinating emergency response across trades.
Manufacturing EAP
Manufacturing facilities house complex machinery, hazardous chemicals, and high-voltage equipment. This EAP focuses on safe shutdown procedures, chemical release response, and orderly evacuation from expansive plant floors.
Warehousing & Logistics EAP
Warehouses feature high-racked storage, continuous forklift traffic, and large open floor plans. This EAP addresses the unique challenges of rack collapses, pedestrian-vehicle collisions, and massive facility evacuations.
Healthcare EAP
Healthcare facilities must protect employees and may need to coordinate patient movement, treatment equipment, and visitor communication. This EAP provides a starting framework that must be validated against the facility's emergency, clinical, and local requirements.
Hospitality & Restaurants EAP
Hotels and restaurants accommodate large numbers of transient guests who are unfamiliar with the building layout. This EAP focuses on kitchen fire safety, guest notification, and safely clearing public spaces.
Retail EAP
Retail environments involve managing crowds of customers, securing cash and assets, and ensuring clear exit routes through heavily merchandised floors. This EAP focuses on crowd management, fire response, and active threat protocols.
Offices & Corporate EAP
Office emergencies generally involve high-density populations in multi-story buildings. This EAP focuses on orderly stairwell evacuation, avoiding elevators, and accounting for employees and visitors.
Transportation & Fleet EAP
Transportation depots involve heavy vehicle traffic, fueling stations, maintenance bays, and hazardous materials. This EAP focuses on yard safety, hazardous spills, and isolating incidents to prevent catastrophic damage.
How to customize an EAP template for a U.S. workplace
An emergency action plan template becomes useful only after it reflects the people, layout, hazards, communication systems, and emergency-response arrangements at the actual workplace. Use the industry starting point above, then complete these four planning steps with the people responsible for the site.
- Step 1
Map credible emergencies and safe actions
Identify the fires, releases, severe weather, security events, medical emergencies, utility failures, and industry-specific incidents that could affect the workplace. For each scenario, document whether employees evacuate, shelter, or follow another validated procedure.
- Step 2
Confirm routes, exits, and accountability
Walk the facility or site to verify usable exits, alternate routes, assembly or shelter locations, responder access, and a reliable way to account for employees, contractors, visitors, and anyone who may need assistance.
- Step 3
Assign trained roles and communication methods
Name the people authorized to initiate the plan, assist evacuation, perform assigned critical-operation duties, coordinate medical response, and explain the plan. Confirm alarms and backup messages are recognizable across shifts, work areas, and language needs.
- Step 4
Validate the plan before relying on it
Compare the draft with applicable federal and State Plan requirements, fire and building rules, equipment instructions, lease or client obligations, and local responder expectations. Resolve conflicts before training employees on the final workplace procedure.
OSHA's minimum EAP elements
When 29 CFR 1910.38 applies, an Emergency Action Plan must address these six subjects. Construction employers should consult 29 CFR 1926.35 and any other applicable standards.
Reporting & Evacuation
Clear procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency, and the exact routes and procedures for emergency evacuation.
Accountability
Procedures to account for all employees after evacuation, and specific duties for employees who remain to operate critical operations before they evacuate.
Medical & Contacts
Rescue and medical duties for designated employees, and names/titles of persons to contact for further plan explanation.
Review the emergency action plan when the workplace changes
A copied EAP can become unreliable when people, processes, or access routes change. Review the plan after relevant changes and after exercises or real events reveal a gap. Record what changed, who approved it, and how affected employees received the updated procedure.
The appropriate review process depends on the workplace and applicable requirements. Avoid relying on a generic calendar interval when a layout, staffing, hazard, or responder change requires attention sooner.
Events that should prompt an EAP review
- Construction phases, renovations, blocked routes, or changed exits
- New equipment, chemicals, processes, storage arrangements, or operating areas
- Staffing, shift, contractor, tenant, visitor, or mobility-assistance changes
- Changed alarms, radios, notification systems, emergency contacts, or assigned roles
- Updated local responder access, utility controls, shelter areas, or mutual-aid arrangements
- Lessons from an alarm, exercise, near miss, incident, inspection, or employee feedback
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