The fire safety log book

Why the log book decides how an inspection goes

Fire safety enforcement is largely an evidence exercise. Two premises can be physically identical; the one that can produce dated test records, a current risk assessment and a closed-out action plan gets advice, while the one that cannot gets a notice. The log book is not bureaucracy for its own sake — it is the only durable proof that the things you did actually happened.

What the book should contain

• Fire risk assessment and the action plan, with each item's status and completion date.
• Fire alarm: installation and commissioning certificates, zone plan, weekly test log, six-monthly service reports, fault and false alarm records, disablement register.
• Emergency lighting: commissioning certificate, monthly functional tests, annual duration tests, remedial work.
• Fire extinguishers: annual service certificates, extended service dates, monthly visual checks, any discharge or replacement.
• Fire doors: the door register, inspection dates, defects and remedial completion.
• Escape routes: periodic checks confirming routes and exits are clear and usable.
• Drills and training: dates, attendees, evacuation times, lessons learned.
• Contractors: hot work permits, fire-stopping records, any work affecting fire-resisting construction.

The rhythm of entries

Weekly, someone tests a call point and signs the sheet. Monthly, someone runs the emergency lighting test and eyeballs the extinguishers. Six-monthly, the alarm engineer visits and leaves a report. Annually, the risk assessment is reviewed, extinguishers are serviced, emergency lighting runs its full duration test, fire doors are inspected and a drill is held. Written like that, an entire year of compliance is about a dozen recurring diary entries.

Who owns it

Name one person, with a named deputy. Split ownership is why log books drift: everyone assumes the tests are somebody else's job. The owner does not need to do every task, but they must confirm each was done and chase what was not. In multi-site organisations, a monthly return from each site to a central register catches gaps within weeks rather than at the next inspection.

Paper or digital?

Both work. Paper is simple, always available at the panel, and cannot be locked behind someone's password. Digital systems timestamp entries, prompt for overdue tasks and make portfolio reporting easy. If you go digital, print a summary annually and keep a copy on site — inspections do not wait for a login reset, and the network may be the first thing lost in an incident.

Honest recording

Record failures as well as passes. An inspector who sees a defect found, dated and rectified reads a functioning management system. An inspector who sees twelve months of unbroken ticks with a visibly broken door closer reads a fabricated one — and everything else in your file is then treated with suspicion. Write down what actually happened, including the drill where evacuation took four minutes longer than it should have and what you changed afterwards.

Retention

Keep at least three years of routine test records readily accessible, and longer for anything that evidences the installation itself: commissioning certificates, fire-stopping photographs, door registers and fire risk assessments. Insurers frequently request six years of maintenance history after a claim, and buyers or funders will ask during due diligence.

Start where you are

If your records are patchy, do not try to reconstruct the past. Open a new log book today, note the date you started it, get the outstanding services booked, and build a clean twelve months. That demonstrates far more than a set of retrospectively filled-in sheets ever could.