One book in one cupboard
The log book lives beside the fire alarm panel, the agent works from an office across town and the directors never see it. When the alarm contractor changes, the new firm brings its own book and the history splits in two.
Facilities management
Fire safety register for apartment blocks and buildings in use
In an Irish apartment block, or any building in use, the fire safety register is the running record of the fire precautions: fire alarm tests and services, emergency lighting tests, extinguisher services, fire drills and staff training. Too often it is a printed log book in the panel cabinet that only the alarm engineer ever opens. This page shows how an owners’ management company, a property manager or a facilities manager can keep the register in Fidrel: an Irish folder for the records, recurring inspections with a frequency, a responsible person and a contractor, a log of every visit and a reminder before the next one falls due.
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Why fire registers fall out of date
Several firms, several rhythms
The alarm company calls on its own cycle, emergency lighting is tested on another, extinguishers are serviced by a third firm and drills depend on whoever manages the building that year. Without one list of what is due when, gaps only show when someone asks for the records.
Fire doors belong to nobody
No specialist contractor looks after the fire doors in most blocks, so their checks are the easiest to forget, even though a broken closer or a door wedged open undoes the protection the door was fitted to give.
The five folders under 06 Fire safety register
The Irish facilities structure gives the fire records a top-level folder of their own, 06 Fire safety register, with five folders beneath it: Fire alarm log, Emergency lighting log, Fire extinguishers, Fire drills and Staff training. Each inspection created from a fire preset points at its folder, so the row in the register carries a link straight to the reports filed there. The fire safety certificate obtained for the building at design stage lives elsewhere, in a folder under 02 Building control, with the other completion documents.
Operations
The three fire presets and what their labels mean
The Irish template offers three fire presets. Fire alarm test and service comes with an interval of three months and the contractor filled in as a competent fire alarm company; Emergency lighting test also comes with three months, carried out by a competent person; Fire extinguisher service has no figure, because practice differs, and waits for yours. Each is labelled Common practice, and the dialog says that its frequencies are common starting points and that the frequency set for the building by the enforcing authority or inspection body applies. Presets with a figure start ticked, and every figure can be changed to anything from 1 to 240 months before the inspections are added.
Setting up the register in Fidrel
Step 1
Create the Irish facilities folders
A project administrator creates the facilities folders once. On a project started from the Irish site they include 06 Fire safety register, with folders for the fire alarm log, the emergency lighting log, fire extinguishers, fire drills and staff training.
Step 2
Add the fire inspections from the template
Under Statutory inspections, Add from template lists the Irish presets. Tick Fire alarm test and service and Emergency lighting test, which come with three months, and Fire extinguisher service, for which you enter the frequency yourself.
Step 3
Add fire doors, drills and training by hand
Use New inspection with the type Other inspection for checks the template has no preset for, such as fire door inspections, fire drills or refresher training, each with a frequency in months, a responsible person and a contractor where there is one.
Step 4
Log each visit and file the report
After each visit choose Log inspection, enter the date, who carried it out and the outcome, and link the service report filed in the matching folder. The next due date then moves on from the date of that visit.
Fire doors, drills and training
Fire doors have no preset of their own, and neither do drills or training. Add each as an inspection of the type Other inspection with a title that says what it is, such as fire door check, stair cores A and B, and give it a frequency, a responsible person and, where a firm does the work, the contractor. Link it to an asset if you keep the doors or the alarm panel in the asset register. From then on these checks appear in the same list as the alarm and lighting tests, sorted by their next due date, and they reach the same reminders.
A log of every visit
Each inspection keeps a history. Log inspection records the date it was carried out, who carried it out and one of three outcomes, Satisfactory, Satisfactory with observations or Unsatisfactory, with notes and a link to the report in the project’s documents. The next due date then moves on by the frequency from that visit, and the history lists every logged visit with its outcome, newest first. A visit cannot be logged with a date in the future. When a defect is found, for example an emergency light out on a landing, report it under Fault reports with its location, priority and photos, and assign it to whoever is fixing it.
Reminders before the next test
Every morning Fidrel looks for inspections due within the next 30 days. The person responsible, or whoever created the inspection if nobody is named, gets Periodic inspection due soon among their notifications, once for each due date. The facilities overview counts the inspections that are overdue and those due within 30 days, so a director or agent opening the building’s page sees straight away whether the register is up to date or slipping.
What the register does not prove
The register records what was done; it does not show the fire authority, an insurer or anyone else that the building is safe or meets a requirement. Frequencies in the template are starting points, and the frequency set for your building by the authority, your fire consultant or the equipment maker applies. Reminders appear as notifications in Fidrel; nothing is sent by email or text message. Fidrel is not connected to the fire alarm panel or the emergency lights and tests nothing itself. An Unsatisfactory outcome raises no fault report by itself.
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Facilities management
Frequently asked questions
Anything else on your mind? We are happy to help.
Talk to usYes, if you give them access to facilities management with the right to write there. Otherwise invite them to chosen folders, such as the fire alarm log, to upload their reports, and someone at the OMC or the agent logs each visit.
The one your fire consultant, the equipment maker or the authority sets for your building. The template’s three months for alarm and emergency lighting tests is a common starting point, not a ruling on your block.
Yes. Add them as inspections of the type Other inspection with a frequency and a responsible person, and they are reminded 30 days before they fall due, like every other inspection.
In the matching folder under 06 Fire safety register, such as Fire alarm log or Emergency lighting log. Link the document when you log the visit, and the history shows it beside the outcome.
It can hold the same entries and the reports behind them, visible to everyone with access. Whether a paper book must also be kept at the panel is for your fire consultant or the authority to say.
No. Log the outcome, then report each defect under Fault reports with its location, priority and photos, and assign it to whoever will put it right.