Emergency plan rules in Montana
One licence type researched, regulated by Montana Dept. of Public Health and Human Services. Every requirement below carries the rule that imposes it.
Assisted living / residential care
Licensed in Montana as Assisted Living Facility, by Montana Dept. of Public Health and Human Services.
Admin. R. Mont. 37.106.28 subchapter (assisted living); construction and fire codes at 37.106.2866; all-facility disaster plan at 37.106.322
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.
That matches the most common figure across the states we have confirmed.
Fire drill records kept on the premises for 24 months, showing date and time, the names of employees who took part, and identification of residents needing assistance to evacuate. The annual fire inspection record is kept at least 3 years.
An assisted living facility must have an annual fire inspection carried out by the appropriate local fire authority or the State Fire Marshal's office, and keep the record for at least three years.
Admin. R. Mont. 37.106.28 subchapter- CONFLICT: Montana expressly permits a resident fire drill to be ANNOUNCED — a general announcement that a drill is under way satisfies the rule. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Colorado require drills to be UNANNOUNCED. An operator in both worlds cannot run one drill protocol.
- Montana is also the lightest cadence found: two drills a year against New Jersey's twelve. The four-month spacing rule is what stops both landing in the same season.
Reviewed 2026-07-30
What this page is
The requirements Montana places on a facility emergency preparedness plan, taken from the state’s own rules rather than a national template. Where we have confirmed something against primary text it is stated plainly; where we have not, it says so and names what to check. Nothing here is inferred from what other states do.
The part that is the same everywhere
The federal floor does not vary by state. OSHA 29 CFR §1910.38 binds any employer: reporting an emergency, evacuation and exit-route assignments, critical-operations shutdown, accounting for everyone afterwards, rescue and medical duties, and naming who to ask about the plan. That layer, plus the exit-route, alarm and first-aid rules and the fire code’s plan structure, is covered in the main crash course rather than repeated on all fifty state pages.
Write the plan
The Emergency Plan Builder produces the document itself and is driven by this same research, so the two cannot disagree about what Montana requires. The Compliance Calendar puts the drills and inspections on dates.