Fire and safety inspection
- What a year of fire and safety walks costs
- 4,135
- Items on one walk
- 76
- Minutes one walk takes
- 134
- Seconds each item is getting, at that pace
- 106
Every figure the worksheets return is worked from the numbers you enter. The only outside figures on this site are the test frequencies and durations the codes ask for, and each one is cited under the tool it appears in.
The figures above start from a worked example (4,135). Change any input and the answer updates as you type, the way it will the month a site adds a floor of fittings.
Download the Fire and safety inspection worked example (CSV)
The fire and safety inspection sheet sizes the walk itself from what is actually on the floor: the extinguishers, the fire doors and the call points, detectors and sounders you count from your own site plan, the minutes each of those takes to do properly, how many walks a year the schedule asks for, and what the hour walking it costs you. It returns the items on one walk, the minutes one walk takes, the seconds each item is getting at that pace, the cost of one walk and of a year of them, the findings the walks will raise and what clearing them costs, and the cost a year of carrying one item on the round. It is the figure that decides whether the walk is being done or ticked.
Where the constants in this tool come from
29 CFR 1910.157(e), Portable fire extinguishers: inspection, maintenance and testing (2023 edition, GPO). Why the default is twelve walks a year with a longer visit on top: paragraph (e)(2) requires portable extinguishers to be visually inspected monthly, and (e)(3) requires an annual maintenance check whose date the employer must record and retain for one year after the last entry or the life of the shell. That record, and the fact that it is asked for later, is the whole reason this product exists.
29 CFR 1910.37, Maintenance, safeguards, and operational features for exit routes (2023 edition, GPO). Why fire doors and exit lighting are on the same walk as the extinguishers: 1910.37(a)(4) names sprinkler systems, alarm systems, fire doors and exit lighting together as safeguards that must be in proper working order at all times. One walk, several device types, one record.
What a contractor asks before running the Fire and safety inspection
Which figures do I need before using the fire and safety inspection sheet? The extinguishers, fire doors and alarm devices on the walk, counted from your own site plan; the minutes each of those takes when it is done properly; the number of walks a year your schedule asks for; what the hour costs you; and from last year's sheets the share of items that came back with something to fix and what clearing one cost. Nothing comes from outside your own sites.
Why does it give the seconds each item is getting? Because that is the number that decides whether the walk is real. Seventy-six items in a hundred and thirty-four minutes is a hundred and six seconds an item, which is a gauge read, a seal, a pin, a hose, the mounting and the tag entry. The same seventy-six in twenty minutes is sixteen seconds, which is a signature. Companies argue about the length of the visit and almost never convert it, and the conversion is the whole argument.
Why does the tool not guess my extinguisher count from the floor area? Because where extinguishers go is decided by hazard class and travel distance on your own floor, not by a density anyone can publish. A count taken from your site plan is right; a count derived from square footage is a number that looks precise and is not, and this site does not print one.