Who this guide is for
Facilities and admin heads, heads of security, fire and safety officers and building managers running offices, tech parks, multi-tenant towers, campuses and factories in India. We are GRC consultants and physical security practitioners, not your fire authority: confirm local requirements with your Chief Fire Officer, licensed fire agency or counsel.
What Indian rules say about fire drills and evacuation
The National Building Code, to April 2026. Part 4 of NBC 2016 carried Annex D, “Guidelines for fire drill and evacuation procedures for high rise buildings”, for buildings 15 m or above (clause 2.38). In our experience, most fire plans and NOCs for high-rise offices were written against it. Annex D set:
- Frequency (D-3.1): a drill at least every three months for the first two years, then at least every six months.
- Participation (D-3.2): occupants other than building service employees were “not required to leave the floor or use the exits during the drill”.
- Records (D-3.3): a written record of each drill, kept on the premises for three years and readily available for fire brigade inspection.
The 2026 change. On 30 April 2026 the Bureau of Indian Standards established SP 7:2026, the National Building Construction Standards 2026, and withdrew NBC 2016. Its fire part (Part F) lists no annex on fire drills and evacuation, and its Annex D now covers additional requirements for high-rise buildings. The high-rise threshold rises from 15 m to 24 m (clause 2.39). The foreword calls the standard “voluntary in nature and is non-binding”, applying where authorities adopt it or contracts require it.
Inspectors enforce your state’s fire rules, building byelaws and fire NOC conditions, which vary by state and may still refer to NBC 2016. As of October 2026, ask your fire authority or consultant which edition yours use. Where Annex D no longer binds you, we still treat it as the most detailed published Indian benchmark for drills, as this guide does.
Maharashtra. Under the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act, 2006 and its 2009 Rules, a licensed agency certifies the maintenance of fire safety measures twice a year, in January and July, on Form B (rule 4(2)). The fire service’s Form B guidelines include an owner’s declaration that “a mock fire safety drill is also conducted periodically”, with attendance.
Factories. Section 38(2) of the Factories Act, 1948 required all workers to know the means of escape and be “adequately trained in the routine to be followed” in a fire. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, in force since 21 November 2025, consolidates the Factories Act, and the government said existing rules continue until states notify new ones. In December 2025 Goa’s Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers told factories to drill “at least once in every three months”.
No national rule we found says every office must drill twice a year, so do not tell your board there is one. You have a withdrawn high-rise guideline your NOC may still reflect, a state audit form that expects drills, and factory rules that vary by state. Drill at least every six months anyway, because it is the only way to test your roll call before a real fire does.
Why visitors are the hard part of an evacuation roll call
Counting staff is the easier part: HR has a list and access control has card taps. A roll call loses the people on nobody’s list:
- Visitors and interview candidates who signed a manual register and were walked up by a host.
- Contractors in plant rooms, shafts and terraces, written into a guard’s logbook.
- Delivery staff and couriers told to “just go up to the fourth floor”.
- Vendor staff in housekeeping and the pantry.
A manual register with no exit time shows people inside who left hours ago, so fire crews may search for people already at home, and it misses everyone never written down. Many card systems record entry but not exit.
Annex D had the same blind spot. The warden’s head count covered “all regular occupants known to have occupied the floor” (D-9.3.9), and visitors appeared only as a number in the Building Information Form (D-9.8). The London Fire Brigade’s evacuation plan template has a named person pick up the visitors’ signing-in book from reception, which helps only if it shows who is still inside.
Treat check-out as a safety control. At the assembly point the useful question is “who has not left?”, and you can answer it only if every visit has an exit time or a host who confirms the visitor has gone.
How an evacuation roll call works, step by step
This is the sequence we write into office fire evacuation plans:
- Alarm and call. Whoever discovers the fire raises the alarm and the brigade is called at once; Annex D barred any internal rule requiring unnecessary delay (D-2).
- Evacuate by the stairs. Wardens use uncontaminated stairs, and the instruction card told occupants not to use lifts (D-9.3.3, D-9.11). Annex D allowed lifts only where they did not serve the fire floor, for example to move people who cannot use stairs (D-9.3.5). It treated the fire floor and floors immediately above as most urgent, and two or more floors below the fire as generally adequate (D-9.3.3), so state whether your plan evacuates in phases or fully.
- Sweep the floor, if it is safe. On their way out, wardens check meeting rooms, pantries, store rooms and toilets, and never go back into smoke; Annex D specifically required a search of the lavatories (D-9.3.7).
- Take the live lists out. Reception carries the visitor list, security the contractor and delivery list, team leads theirs.
- Assemble and count. People stand with their tenant and team, visitors with their hosts. Each warden reconciles expected, present and missing.
- Report the missing at once. Wardens give the incident controller names, last known floor and anyone who needed help on the stairs, and the controller briefs the fire service on arrival (D-9.1.8).
- Chase in parallel. Someone phones each missing person and their host, and tells the fire officer as each one is found.
- No re-entry until cleared. In a drill, the incident controller gives the all-clear. After a real alarm, nobody goes back in until the fire officer in charge says so.
A fire officer at your gate needs a short list of names and floors. Rehearse step 6 until wardens can hand it over within minutes of reaching the assembly point.
Who does what: fire warden, floor marshal, reception, security and incident controller
Annex D built the organisation around a Fire Safety Director, a fire warden per floor and a deputy fire warden per tenancy. Above 700 m² of occupiable space, a tenancy needed one deputy for each 700 m² or part of it, so a 1,500 m² tenancy needed three (D-9.3.1). Outside normal hours, with occupants present and no Fire Safety Director on duty, a Building Evacuation Supervisor manned the Fire Command Centre (D-9.4).
| Role | Usually | Job during evacuation |
|---|---|---|
| Incident controller (Fire Safety Director) | Facility head or fire officer | Runs the command centre, collects counts, briefs the fire brigade, gives the all-clear in drills |
| Fire warden | Trained employee, one per floor | Directs the floor’s evacuation, reports which stairs are in use, does the head count |
| Deputy warden or floor marshal | Tenant employee, one per tenancy | Sweeps the tenancy including toilets if safe, counts own staff |
| Reception | Front desk team | Carries the live visitor list, pairs visitors with hosts |
| Security supervisor | Guard force lead | Stops entry, counts contractors and delivery staff, meets fire tenders |
Annex D also asked for a posted chart of assignments (D-9.3.4), named substitutes (D-9.3.8), visible warden identification such as an armband (D-9.3.6) and a daily check that wardens are available (D-9.1).
The weak link is the substitute. Wardens go on leave, change jobs and work from home on Fridays, so check warden cover every morning.
Assembly points and muster point roll call in multi-tenant towers
In a tower with many tenants, a roll call needs a plan:
- One marked point per tenant or floor band, signed with the tenants and floors it serves. Maharashtra’s Form B checklist asks whether the assembly point is identified and clearly marked.
- Away from the building face, clear of fire tender access and hydrant inlets, never in a basement or podium car park.
- A second point for when smoke, wind or the incident rules out the first.
- Building management counts its own people: lobby visitors, food court staff, guards and maintenance crews.
- One building-level incident controller collects a single count from each tenant warden.
Annex D had building management pass the Fire Safety Plan to tenants (D-5) and put each occupant’s assembly point on their fire instruction card (D-9.11).
Write into the lease annexure or fit-out manual who runs the building roll call, who counts each tenant’s visitors and how a tenant reports its count. In our experience, landlord and tenant arguments after an incident start with “we thought you were counting them.”
Special cases: disabilities, night shifts, contractors and visitors who left
People with disabilities. Annex D asked wardens to list people who cannot use the stairs unaided and help them down to two or more levels below the fire floor (D-9.3.5). Government guidance for England calls this a personal emergency escape plan (PEEP), says it should not rely on the fire and rescue service, and says visitors should always be offered one. Include temporary needs such as a broken leg. Name trained helpers on every shift, keep an evacuation chair at the stairs if your plan relies on carrying people down, and tell the fire officer on arrival where anyone who needed help is.
Night shifts and weekends. The day-shift warden chart does not cover the 2 am support team. Name a Building Evacuation Supervisor for every shift when people are in (D-9.4).
Contractors in plant rooms. Crews in DG rooms, lift machine rooms and on terraces may not hear the alarm. Keep permit-to-work records with the visitor list and make their supervisor count them.
Visitors who left without checking out. The most common false alarm in a roll call. Record how each case was resolved, because the number of “missing” visitors who had left tells you whether your exit process works.
Ask about assistance needs at check-in as an optional question, say why you ask, pass the answer only to the floor warden and erase it when the visit ends. A wheelchair user waiting in a stair lobby that nobody knows about is the failure you cannot recover from.
How often should an office in India run a mock fire drill?
| Setting | Source | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| High-rise building (15 m or above under NBC 2016) | NBC 2016 Part 4, Annex D-3.1, withdrawn April 2026 | Every 3 months for two years, then every 6 months |
| Building filing Form B in Maharashtra | Fire service Form B guidelines | “Periodically”, with attendance attached |
| Factory in Goa | Inspectorate circular, December 2025 | At least every 3 months |
| Factory in another state | State factory rules | Check your state rules, and any rules under the OSH Code |
Drill again after a new tenant, fit-out, guard agency or evacuation route. Make one drill a year unannounced and one out of hours, and tell the fire control room and any alarm-monitoring company beforehand. Annex D let most occupants stay on their floor during a drill (D-3.2), which tests the alarm but not your roll call.
Run at least one full evacuation a year with visitors and contractors inside, because it is the only real test of your visitor list.
Fire drill report format: what a good drill record contains
Annex D asked for a written record of each drill (D-3.3) but set no format. We recommend this one:
| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date, time and shift | Start time, announced or unannounced | Shows drills cover every shift |
| Scenario | Fire location, blocked stair, lift out of use | Proves the plan was tested |
| Alarm to all-clear | Alarm, last person out, roll call complete, all-clear | The timings fire officers ask for |
| Headcount reconciliation | Expected, present, missing: staff, visitors, contractors | Shows the count covered everyone |
| Unaccounted persons | Names, last known floor, how each was resolved | Separates real gaps from people who had left |
| Issues found | Alarm not audible, door wedged, stair blocked | The reason you ran the drill |
| Corrective actions | Action, owner, due date, closure date | What the next auditor checks |
| Sign-off and attendance | Controller signature, warden reports, attendance | Form B in Maharashtra expects attendance |
The most useful line is headcount reconciliation. If it says “all present” with no numbers, you did not do a roll call.
How fire audits and insurers use drill records
Annex D expected drill records to be readily available for fire brigade inspection (D-3.3). In Maharashtra, the Form B declaration asks for drill attendance, and the agency’s checklist looks at the evacuation plan and assembly point.
Insurers’ surveyors look at how fire safety is managed as well as at the equipment. In our experience, a survey or claim goes better with dated drill reports, warden training records and closed corrective actions.
Keep one drill file per building with three years of reports, the current warden chart and the current evacuation plan, so nobody searches email when the auditor arrives.
Evacuation roll call checklist
Where Orb fits
Orb, our visitor management system, gives the roll call the list it usually lacks.
The alarm goes off in a multi-tenant tower
The live register shows every visitor, contractor and candidate inside right now, so wardens count against people who have not left.
Your team is at the assembly point
The evacuation roll call shows who is still unaccounted for, and the “are you safe” check asks anyone not there to confirm they are out.
Contractors are working in plant rooms
They sign their NDA and induction before they arrive, and the live register shows who is on site, so security knows whom to count.
The fire audit or the January or July Form B comes round
The drill report gives you a dated record of who was inside, who was counted and who was missing.
You already have turnstiles or card readers
Orb works with them, so there is no new hardware before your next drill.
Questions buyers ask
Is a fire drill mandatory for offices in India?
It depends on your building and state. NBC 2016 Part 4, Annex D set drill frequencies for high-rise buildings, but BIS withdrew NBC 2016 on 30 April 2026 and its replacement lists no drill annex. The duty now comes from your state fire rules, your fire NOC conditions and, for factories, state factory rules. Confirm with your fire authority what applies to you.
How often should fire drills be conducted in an office in India?
For high-rise buildings, NBC 2016 Part 4, Annex D set a drill every three months in the first two years, then every six months, and we still use it as the benchmark. As a practical minimum, drill every six months, with one full evacuation and one out-of-hours drill a year.
How do you account for visitors in a fire drill?
Count visitors against a live list of who is inside now. Each host confirms their visitor at the assembly point. Give every unaccounted name to the fire service at once, phone each person and their host at the same time, and tell the fire officer as each one is found.
What should a fire drill report include?
Date, time and shift, the scenario, timings from alarm to all-clear, headcount reconciliation split by staff, visitors and contractors, unaccounted persons, issues found, and corrective actions with owners and dates. Keep it at least three years.
Can we share the evacuation list in a WhatsApp group?
It is personal data, so share it only with the people who need it and ask them to delete forwarded copies once the incident is closed. The drill report and visitor records follow your documented retention policy. Our guide to the DPDP Act and your visitor register explains why forwarded registers create risk.
Sources
- National Building Code of India 2016, Part 4 Fire and Life Safety, Bureau of Indian Standards, copy hosted by Nagpur Municipal Corporation
- NBC 2016 Part 4, Annex D: Guidelines for fire drill and evacuation procedures for high rise buildings, Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services, Goa
- Gazette notification establishing SP 7:2026 and withdrawing SP 7:2016, Gazette of India, 30 April 2026
- National Building Construction Standards 2026, Part F Fire and Life Safety, Bureau of Indian Standards, copy hosted by the Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services, Goa
- NBC 2016 vs NBCS 2026: fire safety changes, Sparrow RMS, August 2026
- NBCS 2026: India’s new building standards trigger debate over fire and life safety, Security Update, 2026
- Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Rules, 2009, Legitquest
- Guidelines for Form B, Maharashtra Fire and Emergency Services
- Factories Act, 1948, section 38, AdvocateKhoj
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, India Code, enforcement date 21 November 2025
- Labour Codes go live, Trilegal, 22 November 2025
- Circular on guidelines for factories to ensure fire safety, Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers, Goa, December 2025
- Fire safety risk assessment: means of escape for disabled people, HM Government
- Fire evacuation plan template, London Fire Brigade
This guide reflects the rules and published guidance as of 13 October 2026. It is general information, not legal or fire engineering advice.
