Last reviewed: October 2026
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An emergency action plan tells every employee what to do in the first minutes of a fire, a chemical release, a tornado warning or any other workplace emergency: how to raise the alarm, which way to leave, who stays to shut down critical equipment, where to gather and who counts heads. This free emergency action plan checklist is for EHS managers, facility and site managers and safety coordinators at US workplaces where an OSHA standard requires a plan under 29 CFR 1910.38. One run is one site’s plan, written for the first time or taken through its annual review. It covers the scope, the emergencies, reporting and alarms, evacuation routes and critical operations, accounting, rescue and medical duties, the contact list and the site manager’s approval, then issue, training and a drill. A shelter-in-place phase appears when the site needs one, and extra tasks appear for small employers, critical plant operations and extinguisher users.
29 CFR 1910.38 says an employer must have an emergency action plan whenever an OSHA standard in Part 1910 requires one. In practice that covers most workplaces. OSHA’s Evacuation Plans and Procedures eTool explains that if fire extinguishers are required or provided, and anyone will evacuate during a fire or other emergency, 29 CFR 1910.157 requires a plan. It must be in writing, kept in the workplace and available to employees for review, although an employer with 10 or fewer employees may communicate it orally.
The plan is easy to confuse with the documents around it. The fire prevention plan under 1910.39 is about stopping fires from starting. A fire drill tests whether people can actually follow the plan, and a fire risk assessment is where the fire hazards behind it are judged. This checklist writes the plan itself, or takes an existing one through its review, for one site at a time.
Rule: 29 CFR 1910.38.
Covers: reporting, the alarm, evacuation and exit routes, critical operations, accounting for employees, rescue and medical duties, and who to contact about the plan.
Output: an approved written plan, issued, and reviewed with each employee it covers.
Rule: 29 CFR 1910.39.
Covers: major fire hazards, handling and storage of hazardous materials, ignition sources and their control, flammable and combustible waste, and maintenance of safeguards on heat-producing equipment.
Output: a written plan that names who maintains equipment and controls fuel sources.
Rule: 1910.38 sets no drill frequency; OSHA’s eTool recommends drills as often as necessary.
Covers: the alarm, the routes, the wardens’ sweep, the head count and the time it all takes.
Output: a drill report whose findings come back into the next plan review.
Eight phases take one site’s plan from scope to a trained workforce. Phase 5 appears only when the site needs a shelter-in-place option, and extra tasks appear for employers with 10 or fewer employees, for employees who stay to operate critical plant and for employees who may use fire extinguishers.
Answer the scope questions first. They decide which tasks this plan review shows.
The plan has to say when and how employees respond to each type of emergency. A fire means leaving the building; a tornado or a chemical release outside may mean staying in.
Element 1 of the plan is the procedure for reporting a fire or other emergency. 1910.38(d) adds an employee alarm system with a distinctive signal for each purpose.
Elements 2 and 3: the type of evacuation and exit route assignments, and the procedure for anyone who stays to operate critical plant before they leave.
Shown only when the site needs a shelter-in-place option: a release outside that would make it safer to stay indoors than to evacuate.
Elements 4 and 5: accounting for every employee after evacuation, and the procedures for employees who perform rescue or medical duties.
Element 6 is the name or job title of every employee who can explain the plan. The site manager approves the finished plan before it is issued.
A plan nobody has been taken through does not work. 1910.38(f) requires a review with each employee covered by the plan.
The regulation is short. Paragraph (c) lists six minimum elements, quoted below in the words of the eCFR, and the rest of the section sets the conditions around them. The table shows where each requirement leaves its evidence in a completed checklist. States that run their own OSHA-approved State Plan must be at least as effective as OSHA and may add requirements, so treat the table as a starting point, not legal advice.
| 29 CFR 1910.38 | What it requires | Where the checklist covers it |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Application | An emergency action plan whenever an OSHA standard in Part 1910 requires one | Phase 1 |
| (b) Written and oral plans | In writing, kept in the workplace and available to employees for review; an employer with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally | Phases 1 and 8 |
| (c)(1) | Procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency | Phase 3 |
| (c)(2) | Procedures for emergency evacuation, including type of evacuation and exit route assignments | Phase 4 |
| (c)(3) | Procedures to be followed by employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before they evacuate | Phase 4 |
| (c)(4) | Procedures to account for all employees after evacuation | Phase 6 |
| (c)(5) | Procedures to be followed by employees performing rescue or medical duties | Phase 6 |
| (c)(6) | The name or job title of every employee who may be contacted by employees who need more information about the plan or an explanation of their duties under the plan | Phase 7 |
| (d) Employee alarm system | An employee alarm system, maintained, with a distinctive signal for each purpose, complying with 1910.165 | Phase 3 |
| (e) Training | Designate and train employees to assist in a safe and orderly evacuation of other employees | Phase 8 |
| (f) Review | Review the plan with each employee it covers when the plan is developed or the employee is first assigned to a job, when the employee’s responsibilities under the plan change, and when the plan is changed | Phase 8 |
What 1910.38 does not say. It sets no fixed review interval and no drill frequency. The review duty in paragraph (f) is triggered by events: a new plan, a new job assignment, changed responsibilities and a changed plan. OSHA’s Evacuation Plans and Procedures eTool adds advice that is not mandatory: review the plan regularly, update it when the layout, equipment, hazardous materials or processes change, consider retraining employees once a year, and hold practice drills as often as necessary to keep employees prepared. An annual review, plus an extra run after any of those changes, covers both.
The alarm rules sit in 1910.165. The alarm must be perceived above ambient noise or light levels by every employee in the affected areas. Non-supervised systems are tested every two months and supervised systems at least once a year, and a backup means of alarm, such as runners or telephones, is needed while the system is out of service. An employer with 10 or fewer employees in a workplace may sound the alarm by direct voice communication, provided every employee can hear it.
A yearly recurring schedule starts each site’s review with the plan coordinator assigned and every due date counted back from the approval date. When the layout, a process or the hazardous materials on site change, start an extra run from the same template the same day.
The site manager is named on the first task, and the plan approval is assigned to them alone. Nothing in the issue, training and drill phase can be completed until they have recorded a decision, so the plan employees are trained on is the one that was signed off.
Tables record each employee review, the reason for it and the date, beside the approved plan, the alarm test records and the route maps. Across many sites, the Reports Grid and analytics show which plan reviews are overdue and how far each one has got.
CheckFlow does not write the plan for you or check it against your state’s rules. It runs the review around your own documents: who does what, by when, with what evidence, and who approved the result. CheckFlow’s compliance checklist software shows how the same approach handles other recurring safety reviews.
The plan is one part of an emergency program. Test it with the Fire Drill & Evacuation Checklist, judge the fire hazards behind it with the Fire Risk Assessment Checklist, inspect the wider workplace with the Safety Audit Checklist and log injuries with the OSHA Recordkeeping Checklist. For keeping the business running once people are safe, use the Business Continuity Plan Testing Checklist.
Fire Drill & Evacuation Checklist
Confined Space Entry Checklist
Safety Audit Checklist
Crisis Management Plan Checklist
OSHA Recordkeeping (Form 300) Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
It is the plan required by 29 CFR 1910.38 that organizes what the employer and employees do during a workplace emergency. It covers how emergencies are reported, how and where people evacuate, who stays to shut down critical operations, how everyone is accounted for, who performs rescue and medical duties, and who to ask about the plan. OSHA’s eTool explains that a well-developed plan and proper training mean fewer and less severe injuries, while a poorly prepared plan is likely to lead to a disorganized evacuation.
29 CFR 1910.38(c) lists six minimum elements: procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency; procedures for emergency evacuation, including type of evacuation and exit route assignments; procedures for employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before they evacuate; procedures to account for all employees after evacuation; procedures for employees performing rescue or medical duties; and the name or job title of every employee who can be contacted about the plan. The employer must also have an employee alarm system and train employees to assist in the evacuation.
Usually, yes. 1910.38(b) says the plan must be in writing, kept in the workplace and available to employees for review. The exception is that an employer with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan orally. The plan still needs every minimum element, and a short written version keeps oral briefings consistent. When you answer that the employer has 10 or fewer employees, the checklist adds a task to record who explained the plan to whom, and when.
Any employer covered by an OSHA standard in Part 1910 that requires one; that is the trigger in 1910.38(a). OSHA’s eTool says almost every business needs one, because if fire extinguishers are required or provided and anyone will evacuate during a fire or other emergency, 1910.157 requires a plan. Other triggers include process safety management, grain handling and some chemical standards. The eTool describes one exemption from the extinguisher trigger: an in-house fire brigade in which every employee is trained and equipped to fight fires, so nobody evacuates.
1910.38(f) ties the review to events rather than a calendar. The plan must be reviewed with each employee when it is developed or the employee is first assigned to the job, when their responsibilities under the plan change, and when the plan changes. OSHA’s eTool adds that the plan should be reviewed regularly and updated when the layout, equipment, hazardous materials or processes change, and suggests retraining employees once a year. An annual review, plus a run after any of those changes, covers both.
The emergency action plan under 1910.38 says what people do when an emergency happens. The fire prevention plan under 1910.39 is about stopping fires from starting. It lists the major fire hazards, the handling and storage of hazardous materials, ignition sources and their control, the fire protection equipment for each major hazard, procedures to control flammable and combustible waste and to maintain safeguards on heat-producing equipment, and who is responsible. Both must be written and available to employees, with the same exception for employers with 10 or fewer employees.
1910.38 does not set a drill frequency. OSHA’s eTool calls practice drills a good idea, held as often as necessary to keep employees prepared, with outside responders such as the fire department involved where possible, and a review of the plan’s strengths and weaknesses after each one. Check whether the fire code adopted where you are sets its own drill requirements. Plan the drill at the end of this checklist and run it with the Fire Drill & Evacuation Checklist.
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