Identifying your primary exit is good, but what if it’s blocked by fire or falling debris? What if there’s even a tiny chance your hands may be injured by electric shock, acid, or crushing, but the nearest door doesn’t have a panic bar?
Give yourself multiple options by identifying multiple exits from where you are in a given building, vessel, or other structure. A best practice is to identify the nearest exit in each compass direction (north, south, east, and west). If you aren’t sure which way is north, it doesn’t really matter; the point is to identify four exits in four different directions roughly ninety degrees apart. That’s not always possible, so don’t feel anxious if you can identify only two.
In some cases, you can make an exit where there isn’t one. For example, there may be a removable panel such as an air flow vent between rooms (used to prevent pressure differentials so that doors will work properly). It’s just a grill that goes over an opening in the wall between the two rooms. If it’s big enough to crawl through, you can remove the grill on your side and kick the other one out. If it’s not big enough to crawl through but the wall is a fragile material such as gypsum sheeting (drywall), you can easily break that material away and slide between the studs.
In other cases, you should make an exit ahead of time. For example, suppose you open a ceiling panel so you can enter an overhead space (versus standing on a ladder and reaching into it). You move some distance from the opening and a fire breaks out in that space. What can you do? Before you go up, remove another ceiling panel a reasonable distance away, and place a ladder below that opening. Now you have two exits, not just the one you created by dint of accessing the space. This is also helpful in case you find turning around difficult; you just crawl to the second exit you created. If you’re going to be lying in cable tray, this technique is very helpful.
You can apply this technique to a mezzanine that has only one stairway or ladder. If there are combustibles on that mezzanine, what happens if a fire occurs between you and the ladder you came up on? The solution is to create a second exit either before going up or as soon as you get up there. You could, for example, tie off a rope so you can drop down on the side opposite of the access ladder. Or set a ladder against that side from the lower elevation before going up.
In some cases, it’s not a backup exit you need but a backup person. Bucket trucks without occupant controls require a second person on the ground. What if that person dies suddenly or is otherwise incapacitated? One solution is to have a radio with which you can call for help, but if in a remote location a backup operator is the only solution. If a backup operator cannot be arranged for, then don’t use lifting equipment that doesn’t have occupant controls.
