Free fire safety checklist template
This free fire safety checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — splits fire checks into daily, weekly, monthly and annual sections so the routine items get done on shift and the specialist items are never quietly skipped.
Free. No email address, no sign-up — the fire safety checklist downloads straight away.
Fire safety in a venue fails on the boring items. A wedged-open fire door, a pallet of cardboard against an exit, an extinguisher that walked to another room. Those are all daily-walk-round items, and they cause more real risk than anything on the annual list.
This checklist separates what staff can genuinely check from what needs a competent person or a contractor. Testing a call point weekly, checking exits are clear daily and confirming signage is lit are things a duty manager does. Servicing extinguishers, testing emergency lighting to standard, checking the kitchen suppression system and cleaning ductwork are not — those rows exist to record the date it was last done and who did it.
The extraction and ductwork row matters more in hospitality than almost anywhere else. Grease build-up in a kitchen duct is the fire risk that insurers ask about after a claim, and it is invisible from the kitchen floor. Record the last clean and the certificate reference.
Fire safety law and inspection regimes differ by country, and your building may have specific requirements from a fire risk assessment. This checklist is a recording tool that sits under your own fire risk assessment — it does not replace one, and it does not tell you what your jurisdiction requires.
What's on the sheet
Checklist — pre-printed tasks in sections · Portrait A4 · PDF, Excel and CSV
Header fields
Venue / site · Month / period · Responsible person · Fire risk assessment date
Columns
- Check
- OK — Initials
- Date
- Action taken / by whom
Daily — duty manager walk round
- ·All fire exits unlocked, unobstructed and openable from the inside
- ·Escape routes and corridors clear — no deliveries, stock or bins in the way
- ·Fire doors closed and not wedged, propped or tied open
- ·Exit signage visible and illuminated
- ·Extinguishers in their designated positions and not blocked
- ·No cardboard, packaging or waste stored against the building or exits
- ·Kitchen extraction filters clean; no visible grease build-up on canopies
- ·Fryers, grills and equipment turned off at close and left clear of combustibles
Weekly
- ·Fire alarm tested from a call point, using a different point each week
- ·Test result and call point reference recorded
- ·Staff aware a test took place; any faults reported to the alarm contractor
- ·Emergency lighting visually checked for failed units
- ·Assembly point clear and accessible
- ·Fire action notices in place, legible and showing the correct assembly point
Monthly
- ·All extinguishers visually inspected: seals intact, gauge in the green, no damage
- ·Fire blanket present, clean and correctly stowed in the kitchen
- ·Fire door closers and seals checked; damaged doors reported
- ·Emergency lighting flick test carried out and recorded
- ·Fire evacuation plan reviewed against any layout changes
- ·New staff since last month confirmed as inducted in fire procedure
Annual or by contractor — record the last date
- ·Extinguisher service by a competent person — date and certificate reference
- ·Kitchen fire suppression system serviced — date and certificate reference
- ·Extraction ductwork deep cleaned to standard — date and certificate reference
- ·Emergency lighting full duration test — date and result
- ·Fire alarm system serviced — date and certificate reference
- ·Fire risk assessment reviewed — date and by whom
- ·Fire drill carried out with staff — date, time to evacuate, issues found
- ·Electrical installation and portable appliance testing — date and reference
What you get
- ✓Printable PDF, portrait A4, daily, weekly, monthly and annual sections
- ✓Excel (.xlsx) version you can edit for your building and equipment
- ✓CSV version for import
- ✓Hospitality-specific rows: extraction grease, suppression system, ductwork cleaning
- ✓Contractor rows with space for dates and certificate references
- ✓Initials, date and action columns on every check
How to use it
- 1
Fill in the venue, period, responsible person and the date of your current fire risk assessment.
- 2
Do the daily section as part of the duty manager walk round, initialling and dating each row.
- 3
Test the alarm weekly from a different call point each time and record which point you used.
- 4
Work the monthly section on a set date so it does not drift to the end of the month and get missed.
- 5
Enter the last completed date and certificate reference for each contractor item, and diary the next one.
- 6
Escalate anything unresolved the same day, and file the sheet with your fire safety records.
Questions
How often should a fire alarm be tested in a restaurant?
Weekly from a call point is the widely used routine, rotating which point you use so every one gets tested over time, with a full system service by a competent person on a periodic schedule. Confirm the specific intervals required in your own jurisdiction.
Can fire doors be propped open in a kitchen?
Not unless they are fitted with an approved hold-open device linked to the alarm. A wedge, a bin or a bungee holding a fire door open is one of the most common and most serious findings in a hospitality fire inspection.
Who can carry out these fire safety checks?
The daily, weekly and monthly visual checks are normally done in-house by a duty manager or responsible person. Extinguisher servicing, suppression systems, ductwork cleaning and full emergency lighting tests need a competent contractor.
Does this checklist replace a fire risk assessment?
No. A fire risk assessment identifies the risks in your specific building; this checklist is the ongoing record that the controls it relies on are actually in place. You need both.
Or stop printing it altogether
Rotahr does this check on a phone — timestamped, with the person who did it attached, reminders when one is due, and a PDF export when somebody asks for a month of records. Same job, no folder to search through.
Templates that go with it
First aid & emergency steps poster
This is a free printable first aid and emergency steps poster for a kitchen or bar wall — the first actions for burns, cuts, choking, falls and illness, plus blank fields for your own trained first aiders, emergency number and address.
Accident & incident report form
This free accident and incident report form template — printable PDF or editable Excel — records one incident per sheet: what happened, who was hurt, who saw it, what was done immediately, and what changed afterwards so it does not happen twice.
Deep clean schedule
This free deep clean schedule template — printable PDF or editable Excel — tracks the monthly, quarterly and annual cleaning that daily routines never reach, with a last-done date, a next-due date and space for contractor certificate references.
Free to print, copy and use in your venue — no attribution required. Written for an international audience: where a threshold is a widely used figure it is printed as one, but food safety and employment rules differ by country and change. Check yours before relying on this sheet.
← All free templates