Emergency Egress

[Larry Hoang]

Hi guys,

I am trying to understand building code on emergency egress/exit for my building plan (in Virginia specifically). Normally, a workplace must have at least two exit routes to permit prompt evacuation of employees and other building occupants during an emergency. More than two exits are required, however, if the number of employees, size of the building, or arrangement of the workplace will not allow employees to evacuate safely.

Which is number of employees, size of building, or arrangement of the workplace considered to have more than two exits ?

Does retail spaces have to have two exits just like a normal workplace/building ?

Are there any code explaining how far apart emergency egress have to be ? (for example, a person can not be more than 50ft, 75ft, or 100ft away from an emergency exit?

As you can tell I have not had any experiences with this so I am little confused. I appreciate all your helps. Thanks

 

[RFDACM02]

Larry,

Unfortunately your question leads us to far more questions to determine proper answer. Different types of commercial uses have different egress requirements, with the numbers of occupants being different and the travel distances also varying. Other things such as a building sprinkler system can have a significant impact on travel distances, and the type of use can change the number of occupants. Occupant loads are based on square footage and then figured using a "density" factor based on the type of use. It would appear that you would be best served by a design professional familiar with which code set(s) apply to your locale.