Building Safety Signage: NCh 2189 Standard Compliance

Posted on Feb 13, 2025 in Language

NCh 2189: Building Safety Signage – Basic Conditions

This standard defines the basic conditions for the use of safety features in buildings.

Scope of Application

This applies to buildings requiring safety signage, whether for information, command, caution, or prohibition.

Definitions

  • Command: A device to trigger emergency systems or systems in common use, to be controlled centrally in the case of general commands during an emergency by trained personnel or firefighters.
  • Fire Fighting Equipment: Elements for fire fighting, which can be handled by the users of buildings.
  • Help Station: Site of a building, with enough equipment for emergency medical attention.
  • Risk Area: Any site belonging to a building in which there is a risk of inflammation, explosion, or the presence of fuel and oxidizing agents sufficient for the development of a fire.
  • Exit: Door or opening that is used to evacuate an enclosure to an escape route, to the outside, or a safe place.

General and Specific Signage Conditions

(Signage for places and items)

Signage is required for enclosures, public gathering areas, exits, escape routes, fire equipment locations, risk areas, communication systems, and command posts.

Distinctive Design

In the appropriate places, signage should be used with the hallmarks of NCh 2111.

Badges should be located in appropriate places, either on the item being indicated or indicating the direction. The height from the floor to the base of the logo will be appropriate for vision, at least 1.6 m. Safety badges used to obtain adequate signage should indicate: access to an escape route or exit from the route of evacuation to the outer space or a safe area; the meaning of the evacuation routes.

Signals accompanied by a directional arrow should use a badge that contains a signal accompanied by the directional arrow. These arrows are always placed at the mark corresponding to the direction in which the item is located. Background colors will be green or red, as applicable; the color of the symbol, arrow, and text will be white.

Combined Signals

If it is necessary to place two or more distinctive signs in one place, separate and distinct signs should be used, preferably sorted horizontally.

Signaling Levels

Buildings are classified into four types, according to the level of signage required: very thorough, rigorous, medium, and low.

Rigorous Signage

  1. Escape routes should be signposted throughout their extent, so that the door is visible.
  2. Any door placed transversely to the path of evacuation should indicate whether it leads to the exterior, a safe place, or a dead end, as appropriate.
  3. Signals indicating alarm or other warning systems in the building should be placed on the escape routes and begin at a distance no greater than 10m. This signaling is repeated at least every 10 m.
  4. The location of fire fighting equipment should be indicated on escape routes and begin at a distance no greater than 10m, repeated every 10 m.
  5. Every risky place shall be indicated on the entrance door and inside, and should identify if the risk is generated by dangerous substances according to NCh 382.
  6. From the command evacuation route, it should be possible to display information regarding the location of the relief and refuge places that exist in the building.
  7. All electric panels, gas sheds, water meter sheds, furnaces, air conditioning, and all those teams that represent a risk during the development of a fire, will have a logo identifying the item or the distinctive nature of the risk about themselves or immediately adjacent.
  8. The entire building should have emergency lighting to be activated in case of power failure. The hallmarks are illuminated by transparency or reflection.

Rigorous (Modified)

Same as above, only change the distance from 10 m to 20 m.

Medium Signage

  1. Escape routes should be signposted throughout their extent, so that the door is visible.
  2. Any door placed transversely to the path of evacuation should indicate whether it leads to the exterior, a safe place, or a dead end, as appropriate.
  3. Signals indicating alarm or other warning systems in the building should be placed on or very close to them.
  4. The location of fire equipment should be located on or very close to them.

Low Signage

These buildings should at least have signage for the escape routes of common use, showing the direction of the evacuation and the location of the security features.