Fire drill record

A record for a single fire drill, in three parts: the drill and the evacuation itself, what was observed while it happened, and the actions arising with owners, target dates and a column for confirming each action was closed.

What this record is for

A drill is worth doing only if what you learn from it changes something. This form records the drill — what scenario was used, how long evacuation took, who was involved, what went wrong — and then gives the findings somewhere to go.

The actions table is the point of the document. It sits on its own page, it has an owner and a target date against each issue, and it has a verified by column so that closing an action is somebody's job rather than an assumption. A drill record without that is a note that an evacuation happened.

The form records whether the drill was announced or unannounced. The two are not the same test: six minutes announced and six minutes unannounced are different results, and a record that does not say which it was cannot honestly be compared with the one before it.

It asks how many people with a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) were present, whether their PEEPs were followed, and whether the arrangements worked as written. That last question does more than it appears to: a premises with no written PEEPs cannot answer it, and being unable to answer it is itself the finding. It also asks whether any refuge points were used and whether communication from them worked — whether somebody waiting in a refuge could actually make contact, not whether an intercom is installed on the wall.

Evacuation time is captured as two clock times, the alarm sounding and the last person reaching the assembly point, plus the total. Those two times are what people actually observe; the subtraction is where errors creep in.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 both deal, in general terms, with procedures for serious and imminent danger and with training. A drill record is one of the things a premises keeps in connection with those arrangements, and that is the only claim made here. What those duties require of your premises is a matter for your fire risk assessment, your emergency plan and, where necessary, your own legal advice.

Who it is for

Employers and responsible persons, and whoever organises and debriefs the drill: office managers, school business managers, care home managers, health and safety officers, facilities managers, and fire wardens or marshals.

Unlike a routine test record, this one is substantially narrative. The person filling it in is writing down what they observed and what they intend to do about it, which is why an editable companion file matters here more than it does on a ruled grid.

What it does not do

This is a general template. A drill tests your emergency plan; it does not create one, and it does not validate one. How often you drill, what scenarios you use and what an acceptable evacuation time looks like all come from your fire risk assessment and your emergency plan, not from this form. No drill frequency or interval is stated anywhere in this resource, and the form defers throughout to those two documents.

It does not replace, and must not be presented as:

• a competent fire risk assessment;
• professional fire-engineering advice;
• a fire door survey;
• statutory inspection, testing or maintenance by a competent person;
• premises-specific legal advice.

A drill is not a substitute for a plan. A premises that drills regularly but has no written emergency plan, no nominated persons and no personal emergency evacuation plans is not prepared; it is rehearsing something that has not been designed. The form is built to surface that, rather than to produce a tidy record that conceals it.

Available formats

The PDF is the one to print. It is A4 portrait, four pages, with free-text blocks sized for handwriting and the actions table on a page of its own.

The Word file is the same document, editable, and it earns its place here in a way it would not on a ruled grid. The substance of this record is prose: observations, problems, actions. People type that. A PDF alone would push users to handwrite findings into boxes too small for them, or to abandon the form and write an email instead — which is how the record gets lost. In the Word file the free-text blocks and the actions table both extend as far as the drill requires.

There is no spreadsheet version. Nothing in this record is a column of repeated readings, and a grid would only make the observations harder to write.

Version, issue and review

Version 1.0, first published 1 August 2026. Reviewed 1 August 2026 by Batir Turakulov, Fire Engineer (MIFireE) and Chartered Health & Safety Professional (CMIOSH). Next review due 1 August 2027, and earlier if the emergency plan, the building, its use or its occupancy changes, or if relevant legislation changes.

The version number is in the filename, because a document downloaded today has to be able to identify itself a year from now in somebody's folder.

Accessibility

The PDF is tagged, with a document title, en-GB language metadata and a real heading structure. It is A4 portrait throughout, so the reading order runs down each page in the order the drill happens and the pages are read as one sequence. The warden table and the actions table carry header cells with scope, and the actions table header repeats if it breaks across a page. The free-text blocks have real minimum heights, so they are not clipped under screen magnification.

The Word file is built from real Word heading styles rather than enlarged bold text, carries the same document title and en-GB language in its properties, and marks its table header rows as headers set to repeat.

There is no printable HTML version of this resource, and that is deliberate. This is a record completed once per drill and filed, not a reference document anyone returns to read. The Word file already serves every user an HTML version would: it is editable, it is accessible, and it accepts unlimited prose. An HTML equivalent would duplicate it badly rather than reach a reader the other two formats miss. The explanatory content lives on this page instead.

Licence and permitted use

Free to download, print, complete and adapt for use in your own premises or organisation, including by your staff and contractors working on those premises. No registration, payment or attribution is required for that use. Not for resale, licensing, distribution for a fee, or republication elsewhere, and an adapted version must not be presented as our work. © Lion Risk Management Solutions.

Disclaimer

This form is intended solely as a record of a fire drill. It is not a fire risk assessment, does not certify compliance, and must not be relied upon to determine whether the emergency plan is adequate. A drill exercises a plan; it cannot confirm that the plan is suitable for the premises, that the evacuation strategy is appropriate to the building, or that the arrangements for people needing assistance are sufficient. It does not determine how often you should drill, what scenarios are appropriate, or what evacuation performance is acceptable for the premises — those come from the fire risk assessment and the emergency plan. Completing this document does not by itself discharge any legal duty. Where deficiencies are identified or compliance is uncertain, advice should be obtained from a suitably competent person.