We’ve all heard the news stories about a tragic event that takes place involving an emergency where people simply couldn’t get out of a building fast enough to save their lives. Whether it’s a fire, a mass shooting, or some other emergency that requires evacuation of a building, often the reason why people ‘couldn’t get out in time’ is because there were too many people in the building and not enough available exits. In short, the occupancy load limit was being ignored.
The occupancy load limit of a building will change based on what type of building it is, the size of the building, how many exits there are, and what the typical use of the building is. However, the basic calculation of an occupancy load limit is dividing the area of each room by the prescribed unit of area per person occupying the room. Often, it will be legally required to post the occupancy load limit in a public location, typically at the primary entrance.
