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In every business, organisation or workplace, there should be one person (or more) responsible for fire safety. This “responsible person” is known as a fire warden or fire marshal.

As the fire warden for your company, you have a specific role and a number of responsibilities. You will:

• Identify potential hazards in a fire risk assessment
• Prevent fire from occurring by removing risks and hazards
• Implement precautionary measures such as fire alarms, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems
• Plan a safe fire escape route (and a back-up route) for all people in the premises, as well as designating an assembly point
• Ensuring that emergency lighting and signs are installed and that emergency exits are unobstructed at all times
• Maintaining and testing firefighting equipment such as fire extinguishers
  This is a lot to remember, which is why people go on fire marshalling training courses to learn how to fulfil their responsibilities.

Some companies choose to send more than one person on a fire awareness course. This can be very beneficial to the business, as it helps to create awareness of fire safety issues throughout the company rather than resting it all on the shoulders of the fire warden.