Evacuation Map & Fire Safety Definitions

Means of Egress

The continuous, unobstructed path of travel from any point in a building to a public way. A means of egress consists of three distinct components: the exit access, the exit, and the exit discharge. When a code references the “means of egress,” it encompasses all three components as a complete system.

Exit access

The portion of the means of egress that leads from where you are to an exit. The corridor outside your office door is exit access. It is generally the least protected part of the path, which is why travel distance limits apply to it.

Exit

The protected middle leg, separated from the rest of the building by fire-resistance-rated construction. An enclosed stairwell is the common example. In code language an exit is not the door you leave by - it is the protected route.

Exit discharge

The last leg - between the end of the exit and the public way. The lobby you cross after leaving the stairwell, or the path around the side of a building to the street.

Public way

A street, alley or similar parcel permanently open to the outdoors and to public use, of a minimum width set by code. It is where the means of egress ends - the point at which occupants are considered out of the building.

Accessible means of egress

A continuous path of travel that a person with a disability can actually use, from any accessible point in a building to a public way. It is not automatically the same route as the general means of egress, and buildings frequently need to show both.

Area of refuge

A protected space where someone unable to use stairs unaided can wait safely for assistance. Usually a stair landing or a smoke-protected lobby, with two-way communication to the fire command point. Where one exists it should be marked on the evacuation diagram - a refuge nobody can find is not a refuge.

Emergency escape and rescue opening

An operable window or door to the outside, sized so an occupant can get out and a firefighter in full gear can get in. Required in certain sleeping rooms and basements. Distinct from an exit - it is a last resort, not part of the normal path.

Unobstructed egress

The requirement that the path stays clear and usable at all times - not blocked by storage, not locked, not narrowed by furniture. It is an ongoing operational duty rather than a construction one, and it is what most routine fire inspections actually check.

Occupant load

The number of people a space is designed to hold, calculated from floor area and use rather than counted. It drives a great deal downstream: how many exits are required, how wide they must be, and in several jurisdictions whether you need posted evacuation diagrams at all.

Travel distance

How far an occupant must walk from the most remote point in a space to reach an exit. Codes cap it, and the cap varies by occupancy type and whether the building is sprinklered.

Evacuation map

A floor plan showing occupants where they are, how to get out, and where the safety equipment is. Codes differ on what must appear, but exits, the route to them, your own position and the fire alarm devices are near-universal.

For how one is made, see our evacuation map service.

“You are here” symbol

The marker showing the viewer’s own position on the diagram. Several jurisdictions require it to be oriented to the viewer’s actual facing - meaning the plan is rotated per posting location, so the direction you read as “up” is the direction you are looking. One drawing does not serve every wall.

Assembly area

The designated outdoor location where occupants gather after evacuating, so everyone can be accounted for. Marking it on the diagram is standard practice and is required in some jurisdictions.

Common in warehouse and plant settings - see industrial evacuation maps.

Stairway identification sign

The sign inside a stair enclosure at every floor. Model codes generally require it to carry five things: the floor level, which floors the stairway terminates at top and bottom, the stair’s own letter or number, the floor of the exit discharge and the direction to it, and whether the stairway gives roof access. It is a separate requirement from the evacuation diagram at the elevator landing, and it is the one most often found missing at inspection.

Requirements vary by jurisdiction - check yours.

Roof access

Whether the stairway continues to the roof and whether that door can be opened. It appears on the stairway identification sign because it matters in both directions: an occupant needs to know the stair is not a way out at the top, and a firefighter working the building needs to know it is a way in. Where there is no access, the sign must say so rather than stay silent.

Re-entry

Whether you can get back out of the stairway onto a floor, or whether the doors lock behind you. Stair doors are often locked on the corridor side for security, which means someone who enters on the twentieth floor may be committed to walking all the way down. Codes therefore require the position to be posted: either that re-entry is available on this floor, or that it is not and which floors above and below allow it.

New York prescribes three specific wordings - see the New York guide.

Tactile exit sign

A sign with raised characters and braille, mounted at a specified height beside an exit door so it can be found by touch. Part of accessible egress rather than the diagram itself, but frequently specified in the same package.

Non-glare surface

A finish that does not throw back reflections from overhead or emergency lighting. Specified in several codes because a glossy diagram under a ceiling light can be unreadable from the angle people actually approach it.

All our evacuation plan prints are produced with this in mind.

North arrow

A directional indicator on the plan. Required by some fire departments so occupants and responding crews share an orientation reference, particularly where a building’s geometry makes “left” and “right” ambiguous.

Sign holder

A permanently mounted frame holding a printed insert, so the diagram can be swapped when a floor is remodelled without replacing the fixture. The alternative is a rigid printed placard, which is more durable but must be remade whenever the layout changes.

Compare the options in sign holders.

Authority Having Jurisdiction

The office or individual responsible for enforcing the code in your area - usually the fire marshal or fire prevention bureau, sometimes the building department. The AHJ interprets the written code, and that interpretation is what your building is actually held to. Where a code text and your inspector disagree, the inspector wins.

Model code

A code published by a standards body - the International Fire Code and International Building Code are the common ones - which is not law anywhere by itself. It becomes enforceable only when a state or city adopts it, usually with amendments.

Adopted code

The version actually in force where your building is: a model code plus that jurisdiction’s amendments, as of the edition it has adopted. Two neighbouring cities can be on different editions at the same time, because adoption happens locally and on local timetables.

See what applies where you are in our code requirements guides.

Code cycle

Model codes are republished every three years, and adopting jurisdictions follow at their own pace. It is why “what does the code require” has a date attached, and why a compliance page without a review date is worth little.

Occupancy classification

The category a building or space falls into based on how it is used - assembly, business, educational, institutional, mercantile, residential and so on, each with letter designations. Nearly every requirement is written by occupancy group, so it is the first thing to establish about any building.

High-rise

A building where the highest occupied floor sits above a defined height from fire department access level - commonly 75 feet, though the threshold and how it is measured vary. High-rises attract a distinct and heavier set of requirements, including for signage.

Prior code building

A building governed by the code in force when it was built rather than the current one. Some jurisdictions run two code generations in parallel for decades, and the older one can mandate different sign wording - which makes a building’s age a compliance question, not a trivia question.

New York is the clearest example - see the New York guide.

Fire safety and evacuation plan

A written document setting out procedures, staff duties, alarm response and evacuation arrangements, prepared for the occupancies a code specifies and often submitted for approval. It is a separate obligation from the posted diagram: a binder does not satisfy a signage requirement, and a sign does not satisfy a plan requirement. Most buildings that need one need both.

Grandfathering

Provisions allowing existing signage or construction to remain despite not meeting current requirements, typically until it is altered or replaced. Convenient, but narrower than owners assume - a remodel that makes a diagram inaccurate usually ends the exemption.

Subsurface printing

Printing on the reverse of a clear substrate so the image is viewed through the material. The acrylic protects the ink from abrasion, cleaning and UV, which is why subsurface acrylic outlasts a surface-printed sign in a public corridor.

See acrylic prints.

PVC

A lightweight rigid plastic sheet with a closed-cell core, printed directly. Inexpensive, easy to mount and dimensionally stable indoors - the usual choice where a durable metal or acrylic placard is more than the setting needs.

See Sintra PVC prints.

Standoff mounting

Metal barrels that hold a panel a short distance off the wall, giving a shadow line and a finished look. Requires drilling both the panel and the wall, and the holes are usually made at production rather than on site.

See sign mounting options.

VHB tape

A double-sided acrylic foam tape strong enough to mount signage permanently without fasteners. Useful on glass, tile and finishes you would rather not drill - though it needs a clean, sound surface to bond properly.

See sign mounting options.

Placard

A rigid, permanently printed sign with no removable insert. More durable and better-looking than a frame-and-insert holder, at the cost of having to reprint the whole panel when the floor plan changes.

Compare materials in evacuation plan prints.

Insert

The printed sheet held inside a sign holder, usually paper or a thin synthetic. Cheap to reprint, which makes holders sensible in buildings where layouts change often - a growing tenancy, a school, a hospital wing under phased works.