What’s the difference between Fire Marshals and Fire Wardens?

Posted 5 years ago

Fire Awareness Training and Fire Warden Training are both important to the general safety of your workplace; but what’s the difference between the two?
In the UK there are no legal guidelines that differentiate between the roles.

Both roles will appoint a designated civilian who has been delegated the role of added responsibility within their workplace. Ultimately it depends on your workplace whether you need either a fire marshal, a fire warden or both.

What is the main responsibility of an appointed person?

It is important to look at your fire safety requirement from a sensible point of view.
If you have small business premises then you will need a ‘appointed person’ or ‘deputy’ to sweep their defined area in the case of a fire and make sure all staff are removed from this area – without putting a larger risk on themselves

What is the difference between a Fire Marshal and a Fire Warden?

The title of Fire Warden or a Fire Marshal is unimportant, they are essentially the same role, With larger sites with more than one assembly site, this is where the role of Fire Marshal or Fire Warden may need to be split.

What does a fire warden do?

The Fire Warden will need to make sure the premises are cleared and that they are the last person out of the building.

What does a fire marshal do?

The Fire Marshal should go to the fire assembly point and manage the evacuation from outside the building. They should ensure that everyone is accounted for once outside the building and that they account for the Fire Marshals too.

What is fire awareness training?

Fire Awareness training is the type of Health & Safety course that is applicable to absolutely everyone within a workplace; irrespective of the industry sector. Under the Fire Safety Order 2005, it is a legal requirement that every member of staff receives some kind of workplace fire safety training. This should include:

a basic explanation of the risks posed by fire;
instructions regarding fire signage and;
what to do in the event of a fire alarm (evacuation and emergency procedures).

Every workplace requires a ‘responsible person’, who is tasked with organising and overseeing the training of their staff, across the entire organisation. In a smaller organisation, this could be the business owner or premises manager; in a larger one, this might be a Health and Safety Manager or Facilities personnel.

How many fire wardens should there be in your workplace?

Additionally, the HSE recommends that businesses should have one trained Fire Warden (or Fire Marshal) for every five members of staff. The guidance around Fire Warden training depends on a number of site factors, including the number of staff at any given workplace; the complexity of the building in question (number of floors, staircases and assembly points); and the ratio of permanent to part-time personnel. A Fire Warden/Fire Marshal is essentially a person who has undertaken training specific to emergency fire procedures; including how to undertake relevant risk assessments and reporting; what to do in the event of an emergency; and the correct procedures necessary to ensure all staff are evacuated safely.

We dive further into this, in our article How many fire wardens do I need?

What is fire warden training?

Fire warden training is generally undertaken by enough staff within a workplace to ensure you always have an adequate number of trained people within a building to ensure the correct preventative (and, if necessary) emergency procedures to keep your workplace safe.

Our Fire Warden (Marshal) Training covers all the topics mentioned and are successfully used by over 209,000 wardens to date!

What are the main responsibilities of a Fire Warden?

A fire warden has many responsibilities when working onsite, these include:

Assisting in creating fire emergency & evacuation plans
Making sure that all of the buildings fire doors are in correct working order
Having good fire safety practices at work
Taking appropriate action to fires and remaining calm in case of a fire i.e. fighting fire with the appropriate extinguisher or evacuating people from the building
Doing fire risk assessments
Undertaking company-wide fire drills and then deciding if any actions need to be taken as a result.
Make sure that the equipment has been correctly installed, is in working order and is readily available.
Monitoring general fire safety at all times.