The fire safety log: what you must record, and how often
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for a restaurant, pub, hotel or bar must maintain fire precautions and keep evidence that they are tested. Day to day, that means a fire log book and a regular cycle of checks, from the weekly alarm test to the annual service. This guide sets the whole cycle out on one page, with what each entry should say.
Who is responsible
The Fire Safety Order puts its duties on the "responsible person". In a hospitality business that is usually the operator, with the general manager doing the work day to day. The duties are to carry out and maintain a fire risk assessment, to keep the precautions it identifies working, and to be able to show both. The log book is how you show the precautions are working. If you have hotel bedrooms or letting rooms, people sleeping on the premises change the risk a great deal, and your fire risk assessment and the local fire authority's guidance come before any general schedule, this one included.
The schedule
Exact frequencies come from your own fire risk assessment and the British Standards it references (BS 5839 for alarms, BS 5266 for emergency lighting). The table below is the baseline widely used in licensed premises:
| Check | Typical frequency | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Fire alarm test | Weekly, from a different manual call point each time, at a regular advertised time | Date, call point used, whether the alarm sounded everywhere, who tested |
| Emergency lighting function test | Monthly short "flick" test of each luminaire | Date, units tested, any failures and the fix |
| Emergency lighting duration test | Annually, full rated duration, by a competent person | Certificate or report kept with the log |
| Fire extinguishers | Monthly visual check: in place, unobstructed, pin and tamper seal intact, gauge in the green | Date, locations checked, defects reported |
| Extinguisher service | Annually, by a competent engineer | Service labels and certificate |
| Fire doors | Weekly to monthly visual: closes fully, seals intact, not wedged, ironmongery working | Date, doors checked, defects and actions |
| Escape routes and exits | Daily before opening: unobstructed, unlocked while occupied, signage visible | Usually a line in the daily open-up checks |
| Fire drill | At least annually, more often with high staff turnover | Date, evacuation time, problems found, changes made |
| Alarm system service | Periodic (commonly six-monthly) by a competent engineer | Service report kept with the log |
| Staff fire training | At induction and refreshed regularly | Who, when, what was covered |
The failures that keep coming up
- The same call point tested every week. Rotating them is how you prove every trigger works, and fifty-two tests of the one nearest the office only ever prove that one.
- Fire doors wedged open, especially the kitchen and cellar doors in summer. It is the most common finding in licensed premises and the easiest one for any visitor to spot.
- Emergency lighting that has never had a duration test. The monthly flick shows the lamp comes on. It takes the annual test to show the battery lasts long enough for everyone to get out.
- Drills that exist only as a date. A record with the evacuation time and a line on what went wrong is evidence that the procedure works. A bare date is evidence that somebody owned a pen.
- The log stopping when the person who kept it left. Give the checks to a role, the duty manager or the GM, so whoever holds that role next carries on with them.
Keeping the fire log honest
More people read fire records than most operators expect: the fire authority on an audit, the EHO in passing, your insurer after any incident, and the licensing authority on review. All of them read a gap as a check that was not done. The fix is the same as for the food diary. Give each check to a named role on a set cycle, record it on the day it is done, and make sure anything overdue reaches someone senior before it becomes a pattern. A well-kept book behind the bar or on the reception desk can do that, and so can a system that chases people for you. Either will do, as long as every entry is a true record of a check that was done.
This guide is general information for UK hospitality operators, not legal advice. Requirements can differ by premises and local authority: your fire risk assessment, your food safety management system and your local EHO are the authorities on your own site.