Fire Alarm Log Book: BS 5839-1:2025 Requirements

The fire alarm log book is the living record of a fire detection and alarm system — the document that proves the system is being tested weekly, serviced on schedule, and that faults and false alarms are being dealt with. BS 5839-1 expects one to be kept for every system, maintained by a responsible person at the premises, and available to the fire and rescue authority, fire risk assessors, and the servicing contractor.

Traditionally it's the dog-eared A4 book hanging by the panel: pages of handwritten weekly tests, gaps where somebody forgot, and no way of knowing whether the call point rotation actually covered the whole building. When a fire risk assessor asks for the record, the gaps become findings.

The log book is separate from fire alarm certificates. A certificate (design, installation, commissioning, or periodic inspection) is issued once by a competent person to record a specific piece of work. The log book is continuous — it carries on between certificates and ties them together.

The 2025 edition of BS 5839-1 settled the question of whether the log book has to be paper: clause 48.2 explicitly permits the record to be kept digitally. Annex H — the model format for the log book — was updated in the same revision to reflect the information clause 48 requires.

The 2025 edition also tightened what goes in it. Under the 2017 edition only "major" agreed variations needed recording, with no definition of major. The 2025 edition requires all agreed variations to be recorded in the system log book.

A digital log book that follows the Annex H model is acceptable to fire risk assessors and the fire authority in the same way the paper book is — and it can do things paper cannot: suggest the next call point in the rotation, chase the weekly test when it's missed, calculate the false alarm rate automatically, and export the whole record as a PDF when someone asks for it.

Following the Annex H model, the log book should carry the system particulars up front — premises, system category, control panel details, the responsible person, the servicing organisation and contract details, and references to the installation and commissioning certificates. The ongoing record then covers:

The record needs to be honest and continuous. An assessor reading it should be able to see at a glance whether the weekly test happens, whether every call point gets covered across the year, and whether faults get fixed or linger.

BS 5839-1 requires the system to be tested weekly by operating a manual call point — during normal working hours, at roughly the same time each week, so occupants learn what the alarm sounds like and know when a test is a test.

Crucially, it should be a different call point each week, rotating through the building so that every call point is tested at least once every 12 months. On paper, keeping that rotation straight is the part everyone gets wrong — which call point was last week? Was CP 7 done this quarter? A digital log tracks the rotation for you and simply names the next one.

The test itself: operate the call point with the test key, confirm the sounders operate and the panel shows the correct zone, then reset. If the premises has an alarm receiving centre (ARC) connection, notify them before and after so the test doesn't summon the fire service.

Every false alarm should be recorded with its cause and category, and the 2025 edition recommends every false alarm is investigated. The recognised categories are unwanted alarms (equipment), good intent, malicious, and accidental damage.

New in the 2025 edition, Annex F provides the false alarm rate calculation: the number of false alarms per 100 automatic detectors per year. If the rate over the previous 12 months exceeds 4 per 100 detectors, a preliminary investigation should be arranged; for systems with more than 40 detectors, an average above 5 per 100 calls for an in-depth investigation.

That calculation only works if false alarms are actually logged — another reason the log book matters. A digital log with the detector count recorded can compute the rate continuously and flag the moment the trigger is crossed.

The system should be inspected and serviced by a competent person at intervals of approximately six months. The 2025 edition aligned this with real-world practice: a visit any time between 5 and 7 months after the previous one is acceptable, with the date of acceptance as the datum for the schedule.

Each visit goes in the log book — who attended, what was done, the outcome, and when the next visit falls due. The service history in the log book is also what a periodic inspection certificate (the G6) should reference: what maintenance has been carried out since the last inspection.

Elec-Mate connects the two automatically: if a building's log book is kept in the app, the G6 periodic certificate pulls the false alarm history and service visits straight into the certificate, and the completed inspection writes itself back into the log book as a service entry.