Life Safety & Security January 2021

Who is Responsible
for Fire Safety?
Fire safety is one of the most vital aspects of health and safety within the
workplace. Legally, the overall responsibility for it falls to the
"responsible person". This can be the owner, employer, landlord,
occupier or anyone with overall control of the building in question, such
as a facilities manager.
In practice, a lot of the day to day work of ensuring the workplace is fire
safe often falls to the fire warden, or fire marshal (both terms are in
common use and interchangeable). Businesses are increasingly
recognising the benefits of having a designated, appropriately trained
employee to carry out the necessary tasks relating to fire safety.
What Does a Fire Warden Do?
Although the responsibility for producing a risk assessment and putting
appropriate fire safety measures into place remains with the
"responsible person", fire wardens fulfil an important role in making
sure they are carried out.
Their main duties fall into two categories: reactive and proactive.
Reactive actions relate to preventing fires, including:
- testing fire alarms
- organising fire drills
- making sure flammable materials are properly stored
- managing all paperwork relating to fire safety
- checking fire extinguishers and fire doors.
Proactive measures take place when there has been a fire-related
incident and include:
- directing people to the appropriate exits
- checking everyone has left after an evacuation
- fighting small fires with extinguishers, where possible and safe
- contacting the fire service if they are not automatically alerted
- assisting people with limited mobility.
It's important to note that at no point should a fire marshal put
themselves in any physical danger when carrying out their duties.
Though fire drills may be the times when the fire warden is the most
visible to their colleagues, the majority of their day to day work is taking
care of their primary duty – making sure a fire doesn't start in the first
place. Fire wardens should be aware of all relevant health and safety
legislation and trained in fire safety.
Who Can Be a Fire Warden?
There are no specific guidelines for who can and cannot be fire
wardens, aside from them being employees. However, when selecting
a fire warden from a pool of volunteers, it's useful to consider whether
that person is on-site regularly (as opposed to often working remotely
or at other locations) and whether their workload will allow them
enough time to fulfil all of their duties on a regular basis.
Employers need to consider how many fire marshals are appropriate for
their organisation. For smaller, single site workplaces, one person may
be fine. For larger companies that are spread out over a bigger physical
space, it might be a better option to train a team – which also makes
sure the company has fire warden coverage regardless of annual leave
or absence.
Why Have a Fire Warden?
Fire wardens can be a calming presence during an emergency,
directing people to the exits and assisting with roll call when the
evacuated workers have gathered outside. It can be very reassuring to
the workplace as a whole to see that their employer takes fire safety
very seriously and to know that fire wardens have been trained to deal
with these specific situations.
Industries at high risk of fire hazards can benefit greatly from properly
trained fire wardens – though of course, no industry is free from risk or
can afford to neglect fire safety. During the hot weather of summer
2018, wildfires in areas like Saddleworth Moor highlighted the issue of
fire safety in farming, which heatwaves can aggravate. With moorland
catching fire and decreased rainfall, the risk of farmland doing the same
was heightened. Among other suggestions, leaders in the industry
recommended more fire wardens.
Being a fire warden can also benefit the person's career. The extra
training and experience may be very useful to future employers and
voluntarily taking on the job shows the worker is responsible and can
undertake long-term projects.
As with First Aid, it's beneficial to any organisation to have someone
well-versed in fire safety on the team. With most of the fire marshal's
duties geared towards preventing a fire breaking out in the first place,
the savings to a business can be huge. In extreme cases, the fire
wardens can even be life-saving.
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January - 2021