Fire Safety & Drill Log

What this tool does

CM8-44 is a single register for the routine of fire safety: alarm tests, evacuation drills, extinguisher and equipment services, fire door checks, emergency lighting tests and training. You log each event as it happens; the tool tracks what is due and what is overdue, charts your drill evacuation times against your own target, keeps the corrective actions visible until they are closed, and prints a report you can hand to an inspector, an insurer or a landlord.

Everything runs inside this single file. There is no account, no upload and no network request of any kind, so your building layout, occupancy and findings never leave the computer you are using.

What it deliberately does not do: it does not tell you what to test or how often, and it is not a fire risk assessment. Those obligations come from the law where you are and from your own assessment of your own premises. This log is where you prove you actually did what they require.

What to log

Log the routine, not just the dramatic. The value of a fire safety log is that it shows a pattern of checks done on time, by a named person, with the findings written down — including the boring weeks when nothing was wrong. In most jurisdictions that record is exactly what an inspector asks to see.

• Alarm tests — the regular call-point test, noting which call point was used so they rotate. Log every one, even when the outcome is satisfactory.
• Evacuation drills — with the time taken and the number of people out.
• Equipment services — extinguishers, hose reels, blankets, suppression systems, usually serviced by a contractor. Record who did it.
• Fire door checks — closers, seals, gaps, and above all whether doors are being wedged open.
• Emergency lighting tests — the short functional test, and the periodic full duration test.
• Training — inductions, warden training, refreshers.

Write findings in plain words. "Sounder barely audible in the cold store with the fans running" tells the next person exactly what to fix; "alarm issue" tells them nothing.

Event types and intervals

The Settings tab holds three intervals: the alarm test interval (default 7 days), the drill interval (default 182 days — twice a year) and the evacuation time target (default 180 seconds). The defaults are common patterns, not rules: the intervals that bind you come from your fire risk assessment and your local requirements, and buildings with sleeping occupants, vulnerable occupants or high staff turnover usually need more frequent drills than an office does.

The intervals are guidance for setting each entry's next due date, and the drill target is drawn on the drill chart. The overdue flag itself is driven entirely by the due date you put on each entry, so the tool never guesses a schedule you did not set.

Drills and evacuation time

Time a drill from the moment the alarm sounds to the moment the roll call at the assembly point is complete, and enter it in seconds — three minutes is 180. The register shows it as minutes and seconds:

Record the number of people evacuated too. An evacuation of 8 people in 2:52 and one of 80 people in 2:52 are very different results, and the chart labels carry the head count so the context prints with the number.

The tool only uses evacuation times where one was recorded, and it says so on screen. A drill logged without a time still counts as a drill everywhere else, but it cannot appear on the time chart or move the average — averaging in a guess would be worse than a gap.

Outcomes and corrective actions

Every event ends one of three ways: satisfactory, issues found or failed. A failed outcome must carry a description of what failed — the tool insists, because "failed" with no detail is unactionable and reads badly in any later review.

When an event finds something, write the corrective action against the same entry and tick corrective action closed only when it is actually done. Until then the entry sits in the Open corrective actions table on the Reports tab, which is deliberately blunt: it lists the issue, the action and whether the original outcome was a failure. A wedge removed and a team briefed can be closed the same day; a failed door closer stays open until the new closer is fitted and checked.

An outcomes donut that shows 100 % satisfactory month after month deserves suspicion rather than celebration. Real checks find things occasionally; a spotless record over a long period usually means the checks are cursory or the findings are going unrecorded.

Due dates and the overdue flag

Each entry can carry a next due date — when that test, check or service must next happen. The register shows the days remaining, and colours it: red when overdue, amber within 14 days, green beyond that.

When you log the next event in a series — this week's alarm test superseding last week's — put the new due date on the new entry and clear it from the old one, or simply leave old entries without one. Otherwise the Overdue and upcoming table fills with due dates that were already met by a later entry, and a real overdue item hides among them. The sample data shows the pattern: only the latest event in each series carries a date.

The figures, and how they are calculated

Every headline figure is calculated from the events the current filter shows, and each formula is stated here so anyone can check the arithmetic:

This is a share of logged events, not a legal compliance score. It cannot see checks that were never logged, and it counts an alarm test and an annual service equally. Use it as a trend, not a certificate.

The basis matters: drills without a recorded time are excluded from both the average and the chart, and the tile states how many timed drills the average covers. The Last drill tile shows the most recent timed drill against your target. Overdue counts entries whose next due date has passed; Open corrective actions counts entries with an issues or failed outcome not yet marked closed.

Filters apply everywhere — tiles, charts, tables, the printed report and the CSV. Filter to one zone and the satisfactory percentage is that zone's; the scope line under the report title says so.

Printing and sharing

Print Report produces a report from whatever the current filter shows: the header you set on the Settings tab, the headline tiles, all four charts, the Overdue and upcoming and Open corrective actions tables, the full register and your closing notes. Print to PDF to circulate it.

Before issuing anything described as the full record, clear the filters and check the scope line. A report filtered to satisfactory outcomes is not a fire safety record — it is a highlights reel.

Saving your work

Events, settings and the report header are written to this browser's local storage as you type, and the toolbar shows the time of the last save. That storage belongs to one browser on one computer: another browser, a private window, a second machine or a clean-up tool that clears site data will not have it.

Treat Export .json as the real save — one file containing everything, which Import .json restores anywhere. Fire safety records often have to be kept for years, so export after anything significant and archive the file with your other premises records. Export CSV gives you the register for spreadsheet work. Reset asks twice, then erases everything this tool has stored. There is no undo.

Accuracy & disclaimer

This tool records what you enter and calculates from it. It cannot tell whether a check was done properly, whether an outcome was classified honestly, or whether the due dates you set match what the law requires of your premises.

What must be tested, how often, by whom, what counts as a competent person, and how long records must be kept all differ by country, by building type and by occupancy. This log does not replace a fire risk assessment or your local legal requirements — it is the record-keeping companion to them, not a substitute for either. If you are unsure what applies to your premises, take competent fire safety advice.