Fire drill log
37 rules citedLog the drill, and print a record that carries your state's own frequency rule — with the citation and the date we last checked it.
Why the sheet has to know your state
A generic drill log is a table with the word “date” at the top. What a surveyor is checking is whether the drills you ran match what your licence requires, and that varies more than almost anything else in facility compliance: twice a year in one state, twelve in another, and many count per shift rather than per building, so a three-shift home owes three times what the number on the page suggests. Several set a minimum during sleeping hours on top.
So this record prints the rule next to the drills, with the citation and the month we last checked it against the source. The point is that the sheet answers the surveyor’s question before it is asked.
Where we won’t put a number on your document
About two-thirds of the verified rules cannot be reduced to a single annual figure honestly — they count per shift, or they change depending on whether the building is sprinklered. Worse, the underlying research uses “per year” to mean the annual total in some states and the per-shift figure in others, and at least one state carries two separate obligations at once.
Multiplying anyway would be easy and would sometimes be badly wrong — telling an operator they were finished at four drills when they owed twelve. So where the rule isn’t plainly “N a year”, the tool shows the cited rule and asks you for the target, because you know how many shifts you run and we don’t. A count that is wrong on a surveyor’s desk is worse than no count.
Record what went wrong
The two fields people leave blank are the two worth filling in. A drill that surfaced a propped door, a staff member who didn’t know the meeting point, or an evacuation that took nine minutes is a drill that did its job — and a log showing twelve flawless drills reads to an experienced surveyor as a log nobody actually ran. Write the problem, then write the date it was fixed.
Drill frequency by state
Every rule below is cited to its source and carries the date we last checked it. States we haven’t verified are absent on purpose — the tool tells you to ask your agency rather than printing a frequency nobody confirmed.
| State | Requirement | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Fire drills at least ONCE PER MONTH in all facilities, at varying times and days — and quarterly on each shift in Group and Congregate facilities. Drills must involve the ACTUAL EVACUATION of residents to assembly areas in adjacent smoke compartments or to the exterior, as specified in the emergency plan. | Jul 2026 |
| Alaska | Complete evacuation of the home at least once each year for each shift. The alternative is available only if the home conducts evacuations under the alternative provisions AND holds an emergency evacuation plan approved by the STATE FIRE MARSHAL — or by a municipality to which the fire marshal has deferred building fire safety inspection and enforcement. | Jul 2026 |
| Arizona | A disaster drill for employees on each shift at least once every three months, documented. Separately an evacuation drill for employees AND residents at least once every six months, including everyone on the premises — except a resident whose medical record documents that evacuating would cause them harm, plus enough caregivers to keep the residents who stay safe. | Jul 2026 |
| Arkansas | Fire and evacuation drills in residential care assisted living facilities must include COMPLETE EVACUATION of the premises. On top of the drills required by §405.3, staff take part in drills an additional two times a year on each shift — and in the FIRST YEAR of operation, twelve drills must be conducted with all occupants. | Jul 2026 |
| California | Disaster drills at least every six months. | Jul 2026 |
| Colorado | Staff must be trained in emergency procedures, and at least one UNANNOUNCED drill is conducted annually. | Jul 2026 |
| Florida | Twelve fire drills a year in facilities without sprinklers; six a year where the building is sprinklered. | Jul 2026 |
| Idaho | Not fewer than six fire drills a year on a bimonthly basis, of which at least two are conducted at night while residents are sleeping. | Jul 2026 |
| Illinois | At least six drills a year on a bimonthly basis, with at least two conducted at night while residents are sleeping. Drills must involve the ACTUAL EVACUATION of residents to an assembly point named in the emergency plan, and must give residents experience using various means of escape. | Jul 2026 |
| Indiana | Fire exit drills quarterly on EACH SHIFT, at least twelve a year, held under varied conditions so personnel meet the signals and the required action in different circumstances. Each drill must include the transmission of a fire alarm signal AND simulation of emergency fire conditions — a walk-through without the alarm does not count. | Jul 2026 |
| Iowa | Fire and evacuation drills must include COMPLETE EVACUATION of the premises, not less than six times a year on a bimonthly basis, with not less than two conducted at night when residents could reasonably be expected to be sleeping. | Jul 2026 |
| Kansas | Fire drills at least once every three months. | Jul 2026 |
| Kentucky | Fire and evacuation drills in residential care / assisted living facilities must include COMPLETE EVACUATION of the premises, under the Kentucky Fire Code. The licensing regulations do not set their own separate count — the fire code governs the cadence. | Jul 2026 |
| Maine | Drills or rehearsals of the emergency steps at IRREGULAR TIMES OF DAY, at least six a year and SPACED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, with two of the six conducted while residents are asleep. | Jul 2026 |
| Maryland | A semiannual emergency and disaster drill on ALL shifts, alternating between evacuating residents and sheltering in place so that each is practiced at least once a year. Where the programme can demonstrate that moving residents would harm them, the drill may be run as a table-top exercise instead. | Jul 2026 |
| Massachusetts | Annual simulated evacuation drills and rehearsals, for all shifts. | Jul 2026 |
| Michigan | Four fire drills a year, two of them during sleeping hours. Separately the licensee must practice the emergency preparedness plan — including the fire safety plan — at least once a quarter on EACH shift, counted against Michigan's named shifts of 7am–3pm, 3pm–11pm and 11pm–7am. | Jul 2026 |
| Minnesota | Evacuation drills twice per year per shift, with at least one drill every other month — a minimum of six a year. | Jul 2026 |
| Mississippi | One fire drill per shift per quarter, with each employee taking part in a fire drill at least four times a year. | Jul 2026 |
| Missouri | A minimum of twelve fire drills a year, at least one every three months on each shift. At least four of them must be UNANNOUNCED to residents and staff — excluding the staff assigned to evaluate the response — and the drills must include an actual resident evacuation at least once a year. | Jul 2026 |
| Montana | An employee AND resident fire drill at least twice a year, NO CLOSER THAN FOUR MONTHS APART, including residents, employees and support staff on duty and anyone else in the facility. A resident fire drill may be run by making a general announcement throughout the facility that a drill is being conducted, or by sounding the alarm. | Jul 2026 |
| New Hampshire | Not less than six fire drills a year on a bimonthly basis, with not less than two conducted during the dark of night when a majority of residents are sleeping. | Jul 2026 |
| New Jersey | At least one emergency-plan drill EVERY MONTH — twelve a year — rotated so that four drills fall on each working shift annually. At least one of the twelve must cover a non-fire disaster: storm, flood, other natural disaster, bomb threat or nuclear accident. | Jul 2026 |
| North Carolina | At least four rehearsals of the fire evacuation plan each year. | Jul 2026 |
| Ohio | Twelve fire exit drills a year — approximately every three months on each shift — held under varied times and conditions so staff meet the signals and required action in different circumstances. Plus at least two disaster preparedness drills a year. | Jul 2026 |
| Oregon | Unannounced fire drills every other month, at different times across day, evening and night shifts — and on the alternate months, fire and life safety instruction is given to staff instead, so something happens every month. Separately, a drill of the emergency preparedness plan at least twice a year under the Oregon Fire Code. | Jul 2026 |
| Pennsylvania | An UNANNOUNCED fire drill at least once a month — twelve a year — plus a fire drill during sleeping hours once every six months. Separately, a fire safety inspection and fire drill conducted by a fire safety expert must be completed annually and documented. | Jul 2026 |
| Rhode Island | Simulated drills testing the EFFECTIVENESS of the emergency preparedness plan at least semi-annually, with written reports and an evaluation of every drill kept by the residence. | Jul 2026 |
| South Dakota | Fire drills quarterly for each shift — but if the facility does NOT operate three shifts, it must instead run MONTHLY drills so that all personnel are trained. Fewer shifts means more frequent drills, which is the opposite of the intuition. | Jul 2026 |
| Tennessee | Fire drills at least quarterly for each work shift, for personnel in EACH SEPARATE BUILDING, with one drill per quarter held during sleeping hours. Each drill needs a written report evaluating it and naming the action recommended or taken for any deficiency found. | Jul 2026 |
| Texas | One fire drill per quarter per shift, with at least one fire drill each month. | Jul 2026 |
| Virginia | Virginia does not state a number. Drill frequency and participation follow the current Virginia Statewide Fire Prevention Code (13VAC5-51) — so the count comes from the fire code, not the licensing rule. Two Virginia-specific conditions ride on top: the drills required for each shift in a quarter may NOT all fall in the same month, and every required drill must be UNANNOUNCED. | Jul 2026 |
| Wisconsin | Fire evacuation drills at least quarterly with both employees and residents, and at least one a year simulating conditions during usual sleeping hours. Tornado, flooding or other emergency and disaster evacuation drills at least semi-annually. | Jul 2026 |
The rest of it
The drills come out of a plan; the emergency plan builder writes that, from the same research. What your state requires in full covers filing duties, prescribed forms and retention. The compliance calendar puts drills and every other test on dates so they actually happen, and the log book is what you write the rest of them on.
A record of drills you ran. CompliMaint issues no permits and makes no determination that any facility is compliant — your licensing agency and your authority having jurisdiction do that. State rules are cited with the date last checked; verify before you rely on one. Everything runs on your device.