How to Do a Fire Evacuation Roll Call When Your Visitor Book is Digital

What does UK fire safety law require during an evacuation?

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, every UK business has a legal duty to ensure the safe evacuation of everyone on their premises — not just employees, but visitors, contractors, delivery drivers and anyone else who happens to be on site.

This means your evacuation procedure must include:

• A complete and accurate list of everyone currently on site
• A designated person responsible for accounting for all individuals at the assembly point
• The ability to identify anyone who is unaccounted for and report this to the fire service
• A record of the evacuation for audit purposes

The HSE is clear: if you cannot account for everyone on site during an evacuation, you are not compliant — regardless of how good the rest of your fire safety procedures are.

The problem with paper visitor books in a fire drill

Paper sign-in books create several serious problems during a fire evacuation:

• Someone has to run back inside to get the book — defeating the purpose of evacuating
• The list is only as accurate as the last entry — visitors who forgot to sign in or sign out create gaps
• Handwriting is often illegible — under pressure, reading names quickly becomes difficult
• No way to mark people as accounted for in real time — the roll call becomes a manual counting exercise
• Multi-site or large premises are nearly impossible to manage — multiple paper books, no central view

How a digital evacuation roll call works step by step

With DigiGreet, the evacuation process is straightforward and does not require anyone to re-enter the building:

Step 1 — The alarm sounds

As soon as the fire alarm activates, any member of staff pulls up the DigiGreet evacuation list on their smartphone or tablet. The list shows every person currently signed in — visitors, contractors, staff and late students — in real time.

Step 2 — Roll call at the assembly point

The designated fire warden works through the list at the assembly point, tapping each name as they confirm the person is present. The app updates in real time — no paper, no tally marks, no shouting across the car park.

Step 3 — Identify anyone missing

Anyone not yet accounted for remains highlighted on the list. The warden can see at a glance who is missing and pass this information to the fire service immediately — with the person's name, company and who they came to visit.

Step 4 — Produce an evacuation report

After the evacuation, DigiGreet generates a full report — who was on site, when each person was accounted for, and how long the roll call took. This report is stored automatically and available for any future audit or insurance requirement.

Who can access the evacuation list — and from where?

One of the most important features of a digital evacuation system is that the list does not live in one place. With DigiGreet:

• Any authorised staff member can access the live list from their own smartphone or tablet
• Multiple wardens can work through the list simultaneously on large sites
• The list is accessible even if the building's internet goes down — DigiGreet caches the data locally
• Reception staff, HR managers and health and safety officers can all have access

Multi-site buildings: managing evacuation across locations

For organisations with multiple sites or large premises with several entrances, DigiGreet provides a central dashboard that shows on-site lists for each location separately. During an evacuation, wardens at each assembly point manage their own list — and administrators can see the status across all sites from a single view.

This is particularly important for manufacturing sites, school campuses and office complexes where visitors may enter through different receptions.

Automatic sign-out — keeping the list accurate

The accuracy of your evacuation list depends on visitors actually signing out when they leave. DigiGreet solves this automatically: if a visitor does not sign out, the system signs them out at the end of the day and removes them from the active list. This means your evacuation list never carries over stale data from previous days.

A practical checklist — is your evacuation procedure compliant?

• Can you produce a complete list of everyone on site within 60 seconds of an alarm?
• Does your list include visitors and contractors — not just employees?
• Can your fire wardens access the list without re-entering the building?
• Can multiple wardens work through the roll call simultaneously?
• Do you have an automatic record of each fire drill for audit purposes?
• Is your visitor list accurate — free of people who forgot to sign out days ago?

If you answered no to any of these, your current visitor sign-in process has a fire safety gap.

DigiGreet's live evacuation list is available on all plans. Book a free 20-minute demo and see how it works for your site — or call us on 01865 55 60 70.