Department Emergency Action Plans

Every UC San Diego department must have an Emergency Action Plan.

What is it?

Department Emergency Action Plans address the needs of faculty, staff, students, and visitors at specific locations during emergency situations, such as fires, hazardous spills, earthquakes, flooding, explosion, and civil disorder.

What should it include?

• See How to Develop a Department Emergency Action Plan for instructions on what to include and how to gather information.
• Use this Emergency Action Plan Template (Word file), if you need a starting point.

Why is it important?

An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or the environment. Emergencies catapult us out of our routine operations. Developing a Department Emergency Action Plan helps us react in an organized manner.

Department Emergency Action Plans are an integral part of the campuswide emergency preparedness effort. Many procedures in the UC San Diego Emergency Guide depend on departments following their Emergency Action Plan.

Emergency Action Plans are essential because of the many types of work environments at UC San Diego and the varying levels of risk at each one. Consider these facts about UC San Diego employees, students, and visitors:

• Work and study in over 640 departments in more than 770 buildings
• Conduct research in over 2,300 laboratories
• Handle and store thousands of different chemicals
• Generate large amounts of hazardous waste
• Experience a variety of work-related injuries and illnesses each year
• Work in a seismically-active and fire-prone area

Given the vast scope, large departments occupying different locations may need individual plans for each facility they occupy.

Are they required?

Yes! Please refer to the following resources for further detail on the requirements: 

• 516-8 Emergency Preparedness PPM
• Emergency Action Plans and review of the plans with employees are required by CALOSHA, under the California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 3220. Emergency Action Plan.