Office buildings too slow to respond to safety requirements.

Many building owners are ignoring the fact that an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) must now be developed, submitted to the FDNY and maintained in thier office building.

An EAP is not a fire safety plan. This new law requires that your class E building plan for the orderly evacuation, relocation and sheltering of occupants during non-fire related emergencies.

Simply stated, if your property is required to prepare and submit a fire safety plan, then you are also required to prepare and submit an emergency action plan. The final compliance date for all affected buildings was December 31, 2006 and the FDNY has begun enforcing the provisions of the law.

The FDNY is very busy sending out violation letters stating that buildings that have not filed their EAP are in violation and will be cited shortly. The FDNY has given a 30-day extension to noncompliant properties but these buildings need to act immediately.

Back in July of 2006, Local Law 26/04 required that all high-rise office buildings (equal to or above 75 feet in height), in the Class E occupancy group were legally obligated to install Photoluminescent Exit Path Markings. There are still a substantial amount of noncompliant buildings in the five boroughs. The required glow-in-the-dark markings and signs are in addition to and not in place of existing requirements relating to exit signs and emergency lighting.

However according to NYC department of Buildings, the DOB has mailed 1500+ reminders to owners who are presently not in compliance with the Local Law and gave them a stern warning of possible pending violation issuance.

According to the DOB the penalties for buildings that have not filed the required report by July 1, 2006, these building owners will receive DOB violations for non-filing of the report. This means that when a DOB inspector makes a site visit and witnesses that the work was not completed or that the work was improperly installed, the inspector will issue a violation with penalties for noncompliance beginning at $500 up to $5,000 for the first violation, and fines go up from there for subsequent inspections; Additionally, the FDNY has joint jurisdiction to issue violations under the New York City Fire Prevention Code, and the FDNY has its own penalty schedules.

Fines are a nuisance and can be costly but this only scratches the surface of the real issue. The much more important issue owners need to realize is their liability exposure. A local law requirement designed to improve safety has been decreed; Disobeying this law opens property owners up to the potential for being held criminally negligent if a tragedy should occur as a result of noncompliance.

There is another legal term that can also apply in what is known as Negligent Failure to Plan. Building owners and managers as well as the individual tenants occupying their buildings has a legal duty to exercise reasonable care in providing a safe workplace. Building owners must understand that they will be considered negligent if they do not follow the local law requirements and take the required steps to eliminate or diminish known foreseeable risks that could cause harm. Understand this; There is now a local law requiring a carefully constructed Emergency Action Plan to detail a response to non-fire related emergencies in accordance with LL26 of 2004. Obey this law or face numerous repercussions.

It is important to understand that the essence of the concept of liability is the negligent failure to plan for accidents. The essence of a negligence claim is fairly simple. If there is a duty under the law; any breach of that duty, by the failure to exercise the standard of care of a reasonably prudent person in similar circumstances; and damages that are proximately caused by such breach. Damages that result in resulting physical injuries or death will undoubtedly have devastating consequences both financial and legal.

An EAP sets up the requirements for the orderly evacuation of occupants from any office building necessitated by explosion, biological, chemical or hazardous material incidents or releases, natural disasters or other emergencies. The final rule requires that owners of office buildings develop procedures for sheltering in place, in-building relocation, partial evacuation and full evacuation of their buildings, in response to various non-fire emergency scenarios. These types of events can be ordinary accidents or god forbid- a terrorist act. Fortunately there are specialized firms with backgrounds in developing emergency action plans to not only help enable gaining compliance with the local law requirement but to put a workable plan in place to deal with the myriad of non-fire emergencies that could occur.

Any professionally prepared Emergency Action Plan should use professionally prepared practices and account for numerous possible emergency scenarios. Building emergency threats come in many forms and an evacuation can even serve to place occupants of a building in harms way if the situation does not call for an evacuation.

Building managers are responsible for training their staff members in dealing with assorted emergencies, communicate effectively with tenants and advise them of their planned emergency response, whether an evacuation, partial evacuation, in-building relocation (seeking inner areas of refuge) or shelter in place is called for. As part of the new EAP requirement office buildings are obligated to conduct assorted drills (distinctly separate from Fire Safety Drills) so tenants are aware of their obligations under the new law, assorted responses to different types of emergencies that can occur, building safety systems and exit procedures in their buildings.

It is a sad truth, but in far too many cases, tragedies must first occur before code changes are adopted. The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center made it clear that new procedures are required to protect the occupants of office buildings in the event of non--fire emergencies. The 9/11 disaster led to mandatory new provisions under LL 26 which make dramatic changes to NYC Buildings codes that improve the safety of high-rise office buildings, increase safety for their occupants and assist emergency responders when an emergency occurs.

As a building owner or manager, it is your civic responsibility to provide a safe environment for your building's occupants and obey the local law. Failure to do so could cost you much more than a fine.

BY EVAN LIPSTEIN, CEO 

HYLINE SAFETY COMPANY