Fire wardens play an essential role in any business and recruiting employees to these posts should be as important to you as getting the right chief executive, governors or apprentices.
Asking employees to be fire wardens is a great way of delegating the necessary legal responsibilities while also making them feel like important members of the team.
The Fire Safety Order (2005) makes several references to training and information for staff, but doesn’t specifically mention the role of fire wardens or fire marshals.
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The DCLG guides, which are written to give further advice to those carrying out fire risk assessments, does however provide further information. The guides say the role of a fire warden may include:
- Helping to evacuate the building safely
- Sweeping the premises to ensure everyone is out
- Using firefighting equipment such as extinguishers, if safe to do so
- Being the first point of contact for the fire and rescue service
- Shutting down potentially dangerous equipment
- Performing a supervisory/managing role in any fire situation.
It certainly is a big responsibility. So what makes a good fire warden? In our expert experience a good fire warden is:
Responsible
Being a fire warden is a big responsibility. They potentially have people’s lives in their hands. They will need to act in a crisis but also be able to juggle fire safety questions and advice requested by fellow employees. A good fire warden is someone who wants to offer something extra to your workplace. They will be someone who wants to make a difference.
Good in a crisis
Responding to a fire alarm and helping to evacuate a building smoothly and safely can be stressful. A fire warden needs to be someone who can be calm under pressure. They need to be able to react quickly and decisively.
A good communicator
A fire warden needs to be someone who is a good people person and who has excellent communication skills so they can explain to colleagues what to do if a fire alarm does sound. They need to be polite, reassuring but authoritative.
RELATED: How many Fire Wardens do we need?
Once you have identified the right people to be your trusted fire wardens, then why not get in touch with us? We offer a comprehensive fire warden training course which covers everything from the chemistry of a fire and how it can spread; how different types of fires are classified; practical fire extinguishing skills and what it means to be a fire warden.
For more information about how we can deliver fire safety training at work please get in touch via Telephone: 0843 658 1310 or Email: [email protected].
Matt Spivey is Managing Director of Synergy Fire Engineering, the only BAFE SP205 accredited Fire Risk Assessors in Derbyshire. A member of the Institution of Fire Engineers, Matt is highly qualified and holds a BEng (Hons) in Fire Engineering. For more information about our fire safety training call Synergy Fire Engineering on 01629 828 881 or email [email protected].
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