Ohio fire drill log

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.

The building

Ohio requirements loaded — the rules below are Ohio’s own.

Ohio — Nursing Home: 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.Ohio Admin. Code 3701-17-25 (disaster preparedness, fire and carbon monoxide safety) · Ohio Department of Health · checked Jul 2026Who to notify: Ohio sets no requirement to file the emergency plan with a local emergency management agency. The plan is kept and produced on inspection. Confirmed absent rather than merely unlooked-for.Keep the record: Fire drill records kept on file in the facility for 3 years.
Your target for the year

36 drills this year. 12 per shift × 3 shifts = 36 a year.

We assumed three shifts, since this licence is staffed around the clock. Change it below if that is wrong.

Worked out from Ohio Department of Health's rule as we have it recorded. Confirm it against your licence before you rely on it — then leave the box below empty and we will keep using this number.

0 of 36 logged, 36 to go.
The drills

One row per drill. Vary the time of day and the scenario — most states require it explicitly, and a log showing four drills all at 10am on a Tuesday is the first thing a surveyor notices.

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What Ohio requires

Nursing Home — Skilled nursing facility

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.

Ohio Admin. Code 3701-17-25 (disaster preparedness, fire and carbon monoxide safety) · Ohio Department of Health · OAC 3701-17-25 · checked July 2026Who to notify: Ohio sets no requirement to file the emergency plan with a local emergency management agency. The plan is kept and produced on inspection. Confirmed absent rather than merely unlooked-for.Keep the record: Fire drill records kept on file in the facility for 3 years.
Residential Care Facility — Group home / residential care home

Every staff member takes part in at least one fire drill a year. Residents capable of self-evacuation must be ACTUALLY EVACUATED to a safe area or the exterior in at least two fire drills a year on each shift. Plus at least two disaster preparedness drills a year.

Ohio Admin. Code 3701-16-13 · Ohio Department of Health · OAC 3701-16-13 · checked July 2026Who to notify: No local emergency management filing duty. Kept and produced on inspection.Keep the record: Fire drill records kept on file in the facility for 3 years.

Filling it in so it survives a survey

Vary the time and the scenario between drills — most states require it in terms, and a log showing every drill at 10am on a Tuesday is the first thing an experienced surveyor picks out. Record what went wrong and the date it was fixed: a run of flawless drills reads as a log nobody actually ran, and the corrective action is the part that shows the drill was worth holding.

The plan behind the drills

A drill tests a plan. Everything Ohio requires of that plan — filing, prescribed forms, retention — sits alongside this, and the emergency plan builder writes it from the same research, so the two cannot disagree.

Everything else we’ve researched about Ohio

Same state, the problems either side of this one. Each carries its own statute and the date we last checked it.

General information, not legal advice, and not a compliance determination. CompliMaint issues nothing — Ohio’s licensing agency and your authority having jurisdiction do. The rule above is cited and dated to when we last checked it; verify it before you rely on it.