Documents to have on site
- Approved fire safety plan, current, with up-to-date emergency contacts and floor plans.
- The last two years of fire alarm inspection and test reports under CAN/ULC-S536.
- Sprinkler, standpipe, and fire pump reports under NFPA 25, including the most recent five-year items.
- Extinguisher, emergency lighting, and exit sign records.
- Kitchen suppression service records where applicable.
- Backflow prevention test reports as required by the municipality.
- Verification reports for any system installed or modified since the last inspection.
- Fire drill records and staff training logs.
- A closed-out deficiency log showing what was found and when it was corrected.
Access to arrange in advance
- Sprinkler and mechanical rooms, roof access, and electrical rooms — keys or fobs available on the day.
- Locked tenant suites containing detectors, heads, or valves; notify tenants 48 hours ahead.
- Elevator machine rooms for recall testing.
- Any area behind hard ceilings where devices were previously recorded as inaccessible.
Walk the building the week before
- Clear storage from exit paths, stairwells, and sprinkler clearance zones.
- Replace burned-out exit signs and obviously failed emergency lights.
- Confirm every extinguisher is in place, charged, and tagged within the last twelve months.
- Remove door wedges and confirm fire doors close and latch.
- Check that the fire department connection is unobstructed and capped.
- Confirm the panel shows no active trouble or supervisory conditions.
Coordinate the alarm
Notify the monitoring station before any testing and confirm the system is placed back on test-off at the end. Notify tenants in writing. In residential or healthcare occupancies, coordinate signal silencing so testing does not create an evacuation event.
Have someone in the building who can make decisions
The single biggest schedule risk on inspection day is a deficiency that needs a purchase order and nobody on site who can authorise one. Pre-approve a repair threshold so small corrections happen during the same visit instead of becoming a return trip.