Safety Considerations for Occupants During Power Outages
When a building loses power, it is no longer considered a controlled environment. Normally emergency power is supplied to buildings to provide for safe evacuation and not continued occupancy.
Except in situations when leaving the building would be more hazardous, take the following precautions:
- Report the outage to Facilities by calling 831-1141.
- If the power goes off to a laboratory building, immediate evacuation must take place. In general, laboratory fume hoods will not operate properly and a hazardous indoor environment could
result.
- If workers are in a non-laboratory building in a basement area or an area with no natural lighting, they must move to an area with natural lighting or outside.
- If the outage is in a "Place of Public Assembly" all public events must be discontinued. Classes are not considered public events.
- In non-laboratory buildings, all workers must evacuate buildings for outages longer than one hour. Management will advise staff concerning alternate work areas or when to report back to
the building.
- In any event, if a worker feels unsafe in a building during an outage, they may leave for the duration of the outage after consulting with their supervisor (see
Extreme Weather Conditions/Power Outages Policy).
- Please remember as well that emergency lighting from battery packs will only last approximately 20 minutes.
If you have any questions regarding the power outage procedures, contact Environmental Health & Safety at 831-8475.
