Fire safety is a critical concern for all buildings. Keeping accurate and up-to-date records of fire safety-related information is essential for compliance with regulations and ensuring the safety of building occupants. One of the most important tools for managing fire safety information is the fire logbook.
In the past, paper fire logbooks were the standard method for recording and tracking fire safety information. However, in recent years, digital fire logbooks have become increasingly popular to manage fire safety information. Today, Tio shares the 12 advantages of digital fire logbooks over traditional paper-based logbooks for those responsible for fire safety.
Real-time updates
Digital fire logbooks are updated in real-time, which allows emergency responders to quickly access the most up-to-date information about the building’s fire protection systems, layout, evacuation routes and more. Paper fire logbooks are often incomplete, illegible, missing paperwork or have outdated information that doesn’t account for new changes to the building’s safety systems.
Easy Access
Digital logbooks can be accessed from any device with an internet connection and can be shared with authorised personnel such as building occupiers, corporate stakeholders and contractors, which means important information can be accessed from anywhere, at any time. Paper fire logbooks have a single copy stored on-site which requires all interested parties to travel just to check it – wasting time and resources.
Backup and Security
Digital logbooks are backed up and stored securely online, which ensures important building safety information is not lost in the event of a fire or other disaster. Paper fire logbooks are often misplaced and easily damaged, making it harder for building occupiers to provide proof of due diligence after a fire.
Automated reminders
Features such as automated reminders for regular maintenance and inspections can help ensure that fire protection systems are properly maintained and that all inspections are completed on schedule. Without a digital tool to help, on-site staff are more likely to forget or deprioritise important regular fire safety tasks. Each incomplete compliance task makes your building less safe.
Reporting and Auditing
Digital fire logbooks include reporting and auditing tools that help managers and fire safety personnel identify trends and potential issues before they become major problems. With a paper-based fire logbook system, older entries are rarely read, and non-compliance issues are usually left undiscovered for long stretches of time.
Cost and space effective
Digital logbooks are cost and space effective, it eliminates the need for paper, printing and storage costs associated with traditional logbooks. Paper-based fire safety records lead many building occupiers to become overwhelmed by overflowing paperwork kept in undesirable storage solutions. This situation poses the increased risk of a fire and misplaced documents.
Easy Searching
Digital fire logbooks allow for easy searching and filtering of information, which makes it much simpler to find specific information when you need it. Paper-based fire safety records can’t be searched, filtered, or organised in any way that eliminates the effort it takes to find the most up-to-date version of any specific information.
Improved organisation
Digital fire logbooks allow for easy organisation and categorisation of information, which makes it even simpler to find and share specific information when you need it. Additionally, the ability to add notes to logbook entries removes the guesswork in understanding the context of that information.
Environmentally friendly
Digital fire logbooks are environmentally friendly as they don’t use paper, and eliminate the need for printing, mailing, and disposing of paper-based records, which can play an important part in efforts to reduce your environmental impact.
Scalable
Digital fire logbooks easily scale to the size of any organisation and handle an unlimited number of, buildings, entries, and users, making it suitable for small and large organisations alike.
In summary, across all metrics of comparison, digital fire logbooks provide building occupiers with the most reliable and comprehensive fire safety records to support the documentation of their due diligence. Paper fire logbooks are no longer fit for purpose with such an alternative available and building occupiers should seek to make the switch to digital.