California Emergency Action Plan Template: Six Required Elements

A California emergency action plan template needs to cover six specific elements laid out in Title 8, Section 3220 of the California Code of Regulations: evacuation procedures and exit routes, critical-operations shutdown, employee accounting after evacuation, rescue and medical duties, the preferred method for reporting emergencies, and the names or titles of people employees can contact about the plan.¹ Employers with more than ten employees must keep the template filled out and stored on-site as a written document. Smaller employers can communicate the same content orally, but the plan itself is not optional for anyone.

Who Needs the Written Version

The size threshold decides format, not existence. More than ten employees means a written plan kept at the workplace where any employee can read it during their shift. Ten or fewer employees means the plan can be communicated verbally.¹ Even small employers benefit from putting it on paper, because a written template survives staff turnover and gives new hires something concrete to review.

The Six Required Elements

Any template you build or download has to address all six items from Section 3220(b). Missing one is enough for a citation during an inspection.

Evacuation procedures and exit routes. Describe the type of evacuation for each scenario and assign specific exit routes for every area of the facility. Floor plans with marked exits make this workable.
Procedures for employees who stay behind to shut down critical operations before evacuating, such as equipment, power systems, or hazardous processes that could create additional danger if left running.
How you will account for every employee after evacuation. Head counts at assembly points, check-in rosters, or buddy systems all satisfy this.
Rescue and medical duties for employees assigned to first aid, CPR, or similar roles, spelled out so responsibilities are unambiguous.
The preferred method for reporting fires and other emergencies. This might be a manual pull station, a public address system, a call to a specific number, or a radio channel. This is the element most commonly missing from homemade templates.
Names or job titles of people employees can reach for more information about the plan or their duties under it.

A template that covers all six with your facility’s actual details, not placeholder text, is what Cal/OSHA expects to see.¹

Alarm System Requirements

Section 3220 also requires an employee alarm system that complies with Article 165 of Title 8. The signal must be loud, bright, or tactile enough for every employee in the affected area to notice it over normal workplace noise. If your alarm system serves more than one purpose, such as summoning a fire brigade versus calling a general evacuation, each purpose needs a distinct signal so employees know which response applies.¹

Employers with ten or fewer employees can use direct voice communication as the alarm, provided everyone on-site can hear it, and they are exempt from needing a backup alarm system.² A good template includes a short section identifying the alarm type, activation points, and any secondary signals in use.

Training and Plan Updates

The template is not the compliance. Section 3220 requires that you review the relevant parts of the plan with each employee when it is first developed and again whenever a new employee is hired. You only need to cover the portions that apply to that person’s role and work area.¹

Two situations trigger a mandatory update: when an employee’s responsibilities under the plan change, and when the plan itself is modified. Remodeling that moves or blocks exits, a new alarm system, reassigned fire warden duties, or new hazardous materials all count. Build a revision date and a change log into the template so updates are visible at a glance.

Related Plans Your Template Should Sit Alongside

A California emergency action plan does not stand alone. Two adjacent documents get confused with it, and it helps to know where the EAP stops.

The fire prevention plan is a separate document required by Section 3221. It focuses on preventing fires from starting rather than on evacuating once one breaks out, and it must identify who is responsible for maintaining fire-suppression equipment and controlling the buildup of flammable materials. The same size threshold applies: written and on-site for more than ten employees, oral for smaller employers.³ Inspectors expect both.

The workplace violence prevention plan has been required since July 1, 2024, under Labor Code Section 6401.9. It is a separate written document covering procedures for reporting threats without retaliation, coordination with other employers who share the worksite, and employee training. Several categories of employers are exempt, including certain healthcare facilities, qualifying law enforcement agencies, workplaces with fewer than ten employees that are not open to the public, and remote employees working from a location they chose.⁴ Where your EAP describes response to a violent incident on-site, keep the language consistent between the two documents.⁵

Drills

Neither Cal/OSHA nor federal OSHA sets a specific drill frequency for most private employers. OSHA guidance says to hold practice evacuations “as often as necessary to keep employees prepared.”⁶ Industry practice runs to evacuation drills every three to six months, with quarterly drills for workplaces with serious fire hazards or large headcounts and semi-annual drills for lower-risk offices. Mixing announced and unannounced drills exposes weaknesses a scheduled run would hide. After each drill, note which exits jammed, whether the alarm was audible in every area, and where employees hesitated. Feed those findings back into the template.

Penalties

A missing or deficient emergency action plan is a regulatory violation. The minimum penalty is $500 and the maximum for a single regulatory violation is $16,285 as of 2025.⁷ These amounts adjust annually.⁸ Serious violations reach $25,000 per violation, and willful violations run between $11,632 and $162,851. An inspector who finds multiple deficiencies can issue separate citations for each.

Free Templates and Consultation

You do not need a consultant to produce a compliant plan. Cal/OSHA publishes an online eTool and sample templates that walk through each of the six required elements with fields for your facility’s specific details. For most small and mid-sized businesses, that is a reasonable starting point.

Cal/OSHA also runs a free Consultation Service separate from its enforcement division. Consultants will visit your workplace, help identify hazards, and assist with developing compliant plans. Communications are confidential and are not shared with enforcement. In exchange, you agree to correct any serious hazards identified within a reasonable timeframe. If you are not sure whether your current template holds up, a consultation visit is the lowest-risk way to find out.

1
Department of Industrial Relations. California Code of Regulations Title 8 Section 3220 – Emergency Action Plan
2
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Employee Alarm Systems
3
Department of Industrial Relations. California Code of Regulations Title 8 Section 3221 – Fire Prevention Plan
4
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code Section 6401.9
5
California Department of Industrial Relations. Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention Guidance and Resources
6
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Emergency Action Plan Procedures When Employees Discover an Unknown Biohazard
7
Department of Industrial Relations. California Code of Regulations Title 8 Section 336 – Assessment of Civil Penalties
8
California Department of Industrial Relations. Cal/OSHA Increases Civil Penalty Amounts for 2025