when the alarm sounds: Are you really ready to evacuate

Introduction

Every organization likes to believe it can evacuate quickly and smoothly during a fire alarm, but reality has a way of testing that assumption. In multi-story office buildings, especially on the upper floors, an evacuation can quickly highlight challenges that aren’t obvious in everyday operations. Mobility limitations, inaccessible stairwells, and the simple strain of descending multiple flights can turn a routine alarm into a real stress test. Events like these remind us how important it is to understand who makes up our workforce, how they move through a building, and whether our space truly supports a safe evacuation for everyone. When choosing where to office, those questions matter far more than most people realize.

Why evacuation feasibility matters for modern workplaces

Office buildings are no longer just four walls and desks, they’re ecosystems of varied users, devices, and responsibilities. In a high-rise or multi-story suite, several risk factors elevate the stakes:

• Longer vertical travel via stairwells when lifts are disabled.

• Potential delays for staff with mobility constraints (temporary injury, permanent disability, pregnancy, age-related issues).

• Guests or contractors unfamiliar with building layout or egress strategy.

• The complexity of coordinating mass movement under alarm conditions, especially when false alarms have eroded occupant responsiveness.

According to the Texas Department of Insurance’s “High-Rise Building Evacuations” fact sheet, safe high-rise evacuation hinges on three things: early warning systems (alarm/voice communication), adequate means of egress, and occupant familiarity through practice and training (Texas Department of Insurance, n.d.). When any of these three are weak, evacuation becomes not just difficult, but potentially impracticable for people with mobility limitations.

Lessons learned: mobility & evacuation gaps

In thinking about evacuation feasibility, several realities surface quickly:

• A portion of any workforce may struggle with rapid, vertical stair descent due to mobility impairments, fatigue, injury, or medical limitations.

• Even well-signed stairwells can become challenging during alarm conditions, when stress, urgency and crowd movement amplify difficulty.

• False alarms create “evacuation fatigue,” decreasing responsiveness. Research shows that when occupants repeatedly experience alarms that turn out to be non-emergencies, their readiness to act drops dramatically. For example, a study of off-campus student housing found that less than half of occupants evacuated when alarms sounded; many cited frequent false alarms as the reason (as summarized in Hawthorne & Smith, 2013).

• Many plans overlook assisted-evacuation methods, leaving employees who need help uncertain about what to do when elevators shut down.

Step-by-step: how to assess evacuation feasibility in your office space

1. Map your population

Identify employees and contractors who may have challenges with stair egress, including those with permanent mobility impairments, temporary injuries, reduced stamina, or conditions affecting pace. Consider guests and vendors who may be unfamiliar with the building.

2. Simulate the worst-case vertical travel

Determine how far your team would have to travel in a stairwell during a real alarm. Conduct a timed drill with volunteers to understand how long it takes for slower-moving occupants to exit. This kind of practical insight often reveals bottlenecks no plan anticipates.

3. Review building egress infrastructure

Assess stairwell size, fire rating, lighting, signage, and whether the building provides assisted-evacuation devices such as evacuation chairs. Consider whether voice-communication systems are available, as these can significantly improve coordination during high-rise evacuations (Texas Department of Insurance, n.d.). 

4. Build a mobility-inclusive evacuation plan

Develop drills that involve employees with mobility limitations, identify “evacuation buddies,” and ensure that staff understand refuge areas or procedures used when stair descent is not possible. Pre-position evacuation chairs if needed and train those assigned to use them.

5. Make space-selection decisions with evacuation in mind

When selecting office space, factor in evacuation feasibility just as you would cost, square footage, or aesthetics. Top-floor occupancy may offer views and prestige, but it also lengthens travel distance, increases reliance on stairwells, and can complicate inclusive evacuation planning. Engage building management early about emergency policies, refuge areas, and mobility support.

Why this matters for risk management and insurance

From a risk and insurance standpoint, neglecting evacuation feasibility opens the door to a cascade of preventable exposures. In a real emergency, employees who cannot evacuate safely could suffer injuries that lead to workers’ compensation claims, potential liability issues, business interruption, and reputational harm. Regulators or insurers may also scrutinize whether proper life-safety planning was in place. As the Texas Department of Insurance notes, high-rise emergencies are manageable when systems, egress, and occupant preparedness align, but dangerous when they do not (Texas Department of Insurance, n.d.).

Conclusion: be proactive, not reactive

Evacuation planning isn’t just an operational detail, it’s a strategic decision tied to employee welfare, organizational resilience, and long-term viability. Before signing the next lease or expanding to a new floor, ask the question that matters most: can every occupant — regardless of mobility — safely and confidently evacuate when the alarm sounds?

Organizations that evaluate these issues early protect their people, reduce claims, and avoid preventable losses. And for businesses looking to strengthen their commercial property program, evacuations and emergency-response feasibility are major factors insurers review when assessing risk.

If you’re rethinking your building strategy or want a deeper look at how your current space impacts your commercial property insurance, I’m always open (contact here) to a conversation. Helping organizations understand these exposures and build stronger protection is what I do every day.

References

Hawthorne, A., & Smith, B. (2013). Strategies for occupant response to fire alarms in off-campus student housing. Journal of Fire Prevention, XX(XX), XX–XX.

Texas Department of Insurance. (n.d.). High-rise building evacuations fact sheet (HS04-071C). https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/videoresource/qahighrisebldge.pdf

U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2015). Fire service features of buildings and fire protection systems (OSHA 3256-09R). https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA3256.pdf