A fire drill in a hotel: night shift, guests and the report

A hotel fire drill is a supervised rehearsal of the emergency plan. In Türkiye, it satisfies duties under both the Regulation on Emergencies at Workplaces and the Regulation on the Protection of Buildings from Fire, each requiring an annual exercise. Run it on the night shift, walk guests through it, time the muster, then record the date, the shortcomings and the fixes on a drill form.

The alarm sounds, the team gathers in the lobby, someone takes a photo, and the file closes until next year. That drill proved the building can be emptied at 11 in the morning with thirty staff on site, which is not the night anyone worries about. This article walks through what the rules actually ask, who does what when the alarm sounds, how to build a scenario that tests something, how to run the drill from alarm to muster, how to include guests, and how to write the report that turns findings into fixes.

What do the rules actually ask a hotel to do?#

Two separate regulations apply, and both expect at least one drill a year: one for the emergency plan, one for extinguishing and evacuation.

The Regulation on Emergencies at Workplaces (opens in a new tab), Article 13, as amended on 1 October 2021 (Resmî Gazete No. 31615), requires drills at set intervals so the steps of the emergency plan can be followed regularly and the plan is shown to work. Each drill is supervised and reviewed, and the corrective and preventive measures needed are taken. Mines follow their own regulation; other workplaces hold drills at least once a year.

The same article requires a drill form (tatbikat formu) after each drill: the date of the drill, the shortcomings seen and the arrangements to be made because of them. Annex 2 of the regulation contains a sample form, and the emergency plan is reviewed and corrected in light of what the drill showed.

The Regulation on the Protection of Buildings from Fire (opens in a new tab) (Decision 2007/12937, consolidated text last amended 1 July 2025), Article 129, requires practical training in using firefighting equipment and reaching the fire brigade quickly, and an extinguishing and evacuation drill in the building at least once a year.

Responsibility is personal and named: under Article 124 the owner or managers are responsible for fire safety, and where several managers exist, the most senior one. Article 10(6) of the emergencies regulation says that when response and evacuation methods are set, the employer must consider customers, visitors and other people likely to be at the workplace, not only employees. In a hotel, those people are the point.

One well-built drill can serve both duties if it rehearses evacuation and extinguishing, is supervised and reviewed, and produces the form. Confirm that reading with your safety expert and your local fire brigade before you rely on it. This article describes the duties in general terms; dates, intervals, penalties and your own building's case belong with your safety expert or legal adviser. For the equipment and document side, see our fire safety rules checklist for hotels in Türkiye.

Who has to take part, and who is in charge when the alarm sounds?#

Responsibility sits with the owner or most senior manager, and the work is done by named people: a fire safety officer for each area and four teams once the building holds more than 50 people.

Article 125 of the fire regulation says a fire safety officer is chosen from the staff for each floor, section or the whole building. During working hours this person checks the fire precautions in their area and has them taken. In a hotel that maps to floors or blocks by day, and to the duty manager by night.

Article 126 requires every non-residential structure, building, facility or business with more than 50 people inside to form four emergency teams: extinguishing, rescue, protection and first aid. Extinguishing and rescue have at least three people each; protection and first aid at least two. Each team has a leader, and the duties and the name and address lists are posted where they can easily be seen. Article 128 adds that the owner or manager keeps the equipment the teams need; a team list without a torch, a key and a working extinguisher is paperwork. Under Article 129, team members are trained in fire prevention, firefighting, rescue, first aid and cooperation with the fire brigade, using the local fire brigade and civil defence organisations.

Write the night version of the roster separately. A poster that names eight people is useless at 03:00 when three are in the building; the night sheet must name those three and their deputies. Give every role a deputy, and check that the deputy is not on annual leave on the drill date. For the wider staff duties around this, see our occupational health and safety checklist for hotels.

How do you plan a fire drill scenario that actually tests something?#

Choose one or two failures to rehearse, write the timeline, and tell everyone who needs to know before the alarm, except the people being tested.

Set one or two objectives, not five. For example: the night team clears three floors and reaches the muster point within a set time, or the handover to the fire brigade at the gate works with the plan and the key in the right hands. Write the scenario down: the time, the floor or block, the assumed seat of the fire, one blocked route such as a stairwell out of use, and the lifts out of service.

Assign the mechanics: who sounds the alarm, who makes the call, who meets the brigade at the entrance, who sweeps, who holds the list, who times, who supervises and reviews. Inform the people who must not be surprised: the local fire brigade so a real response is not triggered, the neighbours, the safety expert who supervises, and the staff who are not part of the test.

Decide whether the drill is announced. An announced drill lets you walk guests through the route; an unannounced one tests the staff. The texts do not prescribe which, so take the view of your fire brigade and safety expert. Check the equipment before the day: a drill that begins with a faulty alarm teaches you about the alarm, not about the plan. Keep the pre-drill briefing to ten minutes, with roles read aloud, the stop rule stated and questions taken. Equipment checks belong on the wider periodic inspections calendar for hotels.

What happens between the alarm and the muster?#

The drill runs as a timed sequence: alarm, call, floor sweep, stairs, muster, and a roll call against the in-house list.

State who activates the alarm and what it sounds like, and whether the drill uses the real signal or a spoken announcement over the public address. The front desk needs a fixed script: a set of sentences for the call to the fire brigade and for guests standing at the desk, giving the address, the nearest entrance, the floor and whether anyone is unaccounted for. Keep it printed under the desk, in Turkish and English.

Floors are swept in a fixed order: knock and call, check bathrooms, close doors behind you, and report each floor clear to the person holding the list. Lifts are parked and out of service for the duration; stairs only. The muster point is fixed, away from the building, and the count is taken against the in-house guest list and the staff list, not against memory.

Time two numbers: alarm to last person at the muster point, and alarm to the handover with the fire brigade. Both go into the report. State the stop rule in advance: who ends the drill, and how staff and guests are told it is over.

Why does the night shift matter more than the day team?#

Because the night shift is the smallest team, the guests are asleep, and the person at the desk is also the person who has to call, sweep and meet the fire brigade.

Count who is physically in the building at 03:00, including security, kitchen and engineering. If the answer is two, the plan must be written for two, not for the day roster. Guests asleep change the work: knocking, waking, waiting for a door to open, and corridors that are dark until the emergency lighting proves itself.

The desk cannot leave the desk unless someone covers it. Decide in advance who covers, and write it into the night sheet. The guest-facing staff at night may be fewer and newer, so the script and the list matter more, not less. Test the handover: who meets the fire brigade at the gate, with the plan, the key and the list, and how long that takes from the alarm.

Compare the night muster time with the day muster time. The gap between them is the real finding of the exercise. Seasonal turnover erases memory: the team that drilled last October is not the team on duty in July.

How do you include guests who need help or do not speak Turkish?#

By finding them before the drill: a voluntary question at check-in, a short instruction in the languages the hotel actually serves, and a named staff member for each guest who may need assistance.

Article 10(6) of the emergencies regulation already requires the employer to consider customers and visitors when response and evacuation methods are set, so this is inside the duty, not an extra. Ask, do not assume: a voluntary question at check-in, recorded where the night team can see it, tells you who may need help leaving the building. Guests may decline, and that is their right.

Language is a concrete task. The evacuation card and the muster instruction should be in the languages the hotel genuinely serves, with a short desk script to match; a card nobody can read is decoration. A guest who cannot hear the alarm has to be told in person, which is a staff task with a name against it, not a device on a wall. Do not move a guest who cannot walk without trained help: assign staff, and say in the report who was assigned and whether they were on shift. During an announced drill, walk a small group down the stairs so they have seen the route before the night they need it.

What goes into the fire drill report, and who fixes the gaps?#

The report records the date, the shortcomings and the arrangements made because of them, and each arrangement gets one owner and one date.

The regulation's drill form asks for three things: the date of the drill, the shortcomings seen, and the arrangements to be made because of them, with Annex 2 giving a sample form to start from. Add what a manager needs and the sample does not spell out: start and end times, the scenario, who took part, the alarm-to-muster time, the equipment used, and who supervised and reviewed the drill.

Write shortcomings plainly and specifically: stairwell B door locked, nobody at the gate to meet the brigade, the list at the desk was yesterday's. Vague findings cannot be fixed. Each shortcoming gets an owner, an action, a date, and a way to check it was done; a gap without an owner is a note, not a corrective measure. The emergency plan is then reviewed and corrected in light of the drill, and the corrected plan is what the next drill tests.

File the form with the building's fire documents, and open the next drill by reading the previous report aloud.

Starting the season with a drill#

A seasonal hotel should hold one before the first guests arrive, with the team that will actually be on duty, and repeat the training for everyone hired after it. The wider timeline for this is in our guide to reopening a seasonal hotel.

What to do next#

Book the date, name the night shift as the team being tested, and write the report in the same week while the details are still exact. The sections fit together as one loop: the regulations set the duty, the scenario gives the drill something to prove, the night shift gives it the hardest case, the guests set the constraint, and the report turns what failed into the next drill's objective.