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FIRE SAFETY FAQS

General Fire Training FAQs
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What Training Do I Need?

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that ALL staff must be given instruction on what to do in the case of fire.

The level of training will vary dependant on your work sector, the size and layout of your building, the number of employees and the staff turnover. The following information should assist you in determining what you need to put in place to satisfy the law.

When first employed all staff should be given basic information on what they are expected to do in the event of a fire, this should be given on induction when first employed.

For example in a simple office it might be telling them:

Where all the exits are
Where the assembly points are
Who the wardens are
What they should do when the alarm sounds (i.e. leave via their nearest safe exit), and that they should not attempt to fight any fire unless they have received formal training.

For larger buildings and certainly for different types of environment where there may be a higher fire risk or risk to persons, proper training should be undertaken. Care and nursing homes are a known high-risk environment. The simple mistakes made at Rose Park Care Home in Scotland that caused the deaths of 14 residents in 2004 illustrate this.

You should keep records of all training undertaken within your premises.

There is a list of FAQs about our services on the bottom of the courses page. ( click here )

General Fire FAQs

Who requires fire extinguisher training?

There is a view held by some that fighting fires in the workplace with extinguishers is dangerous and should not be attempted at any cost. The motivation for this may be driven primarily by staff safety, but ultimately might be due to the threat of litigation, should a staff member be hurt.

It should be remembered that ALL fires start from small beginnings - just a single candle-sized flame in the early stages. Staff can easily deal with a smouldering bin or a smell of burning coming from a photocopying machine or a computer.

The terminology would be better rendered as ‘managing a small fire incident’. We recommend around a third of the workforce should receive formal training in the use of extinguishers. Note that estimates suggest up to 90% of fires in factories are dealt with by employees and not the Fire Service.

When should I appoint Fire Wardens or Marshals?

It can be very subjective in terms of when you reach that threshold for requiring Wardens or Marshals. Generally this would be if you reside in larger buildings with several employees. In any environment someone should be appointed to manage the fire response. We can provide some clarity on this if you want to give us a call. Fires have a huge impact on businesses and undoubtedly the biggest impact is the associated disruption. An efficient and coordinated response will see these events managed very quickly, thereby minimising disruption.

A poorly managed fire alarm activation can cost thousands of pounds. Every minute of delay in resuming ‘business as usual’ costs you money - staff away from their workstations, customers evacuated, meetings interrupted: the list goes on. It is important you plan for this eventuality to ensure this is managed as quickly as possible. Appointing Fire Wardens and providing training will help you achieve protection from fire.

A simple concept is to divide your building into zones with trained staff responsible for each zone. They should have a proactive role ensuring the area for which they are responsible is safe in respect of fire.

Fire Wardens also have a reactive role, which involves a sweep of their zone to ensure everyone is responding appropriately. Following the actuation of the fire alarm one of them may discover a fire in the early stages, which is why all our courses include practical ‘hands on’ experience with live fire extinguishers.

Zones should be of a size that can be swept and cleared within 2.5 to 3 minutes as a rough ‘rule of thumb’. Zone sizes will vary dependant on area, complexity of the layout, whether the site is high risk and the number of people that are in the building.

Remember clear guidance for where zones start and finish must be defined. Managers should be mindful of how fire alarms work, consider human behavioral traits, people with special needs and establish measures for resilience such as holiday cover.

When planning your training you can increase resilience by allocating more than one person to each zone, allowing for the appointment of deputies.

What’s the difference between a Fire Warden and Marshal?

Historically the Fire Warden is used as the proactive term. If you think about a Warden as an enforcement role (such as traffic wardens), you can see that this is a monitoring/policing type job, ensuring the building is safe on a day-to-day basis.

The Fire Marshal is normally the reactive role. If you think about Marshals on a cross-country run or at an airport, the role is linked with the coordination of movement. In the case of fire it would be coordinating the evacuation.

The definitions have merged over the years and it is often down to personal preference which term you use, but it is the case that the person responsible in a defined zone has both a proactive and reactive role.

What is the role of the Head Marshal?

The Head Marshal is the person who coordinates the entire evacuation. They may not have any duties in respect to sweeping the premises or interpreting and investigating the Fire Alarm. Their main role will be to ensure a full evacuation has been undertaken and they will normally have a list of the fire warden search zones and a plan of the building so that they can ‘tick off’ as the Marshals from their respective zones report in.

They should be in a position to give detailed information to the arriving Fire Service on the extent of the evacuation and such things as details of disabled persons in refuges etc. They should have contact with the person who is dealing with the fire alarm panel (normally the Emergency Controller).

What is the role of the Emergency Controller?

The Emergency Controller’s role is to bring the incident to a swift conclusion. On any actuation they should attend and interpret the fire panel and facilitate a means to investigate the cause of the actuation. The Emergency Controller might be a member of the building management team in a larger premises as they will generally have a means to communicate via radios or other mobile devices. It is their job to reset the panel or contact the Fire Service dependant on the findings.

Why is it important to sweep/search my zone?

It is very important to sweep your full area, as people often need to be told to leave and require prompting. It is important that when you report to the Head Marshal you are confident your entire zone is clear. One significant aspect that should not be overlooked is that ALL fires start from small beginnings. Modern fire alarm systems are very sensitive and detect in the very early stages just as something starts to overheat. You may get an opportunity to remedy the issue before a fire starts or extinguish a minor fire before it grows into a catastrophic event.

What if someone refuses to leave?

Members of staff tasked with evacuating should be confident and authoritative. Some staff, however, may not wish to come out, for instance because they are halfway through an important job. An individual might think they have more authority as they are a higher managerial grade. You should not put yourself at risk. Once a person has refused to leave, you should report this to the Head Marshal and feed it back during any debrief.

Why do I have to carry out drills and how often?

Any good system is a tested system, and by law you must undertake drills. Best practice is twice yearly. If you have a large turnover of staff you may have to do this more frequently. A common sense approach should be adopted, for example a school may do a drill when the new intake starts in September. Considerations for drills include: hiding a member of staff in an obscure location to see if they are identified as missing; blocking the main exit to force people to use alternate means of escape; other scenarios which test staff resilience. Empirical evidence shows that people often evacuate via the same way they habitually enter a building i.e. the most familiar exit, and will often ignore closer exits.

When should I test my fire alarm?

Your fire alarm system should be tested weekly at a set time. You should use a different call point (the red ‘break-glass’ boxes) each time you test the alarm. You should record these tests in a logbook.

Am I putting my staff at risk by expecting my staff to use extinguishers?

The term firefighting conjures up all sorts of visions in your head. There are times when they are great things to use, and with training it could be the difference between a small fire incident and the total loss of your building. As stated in other FAQs statistically up to 90% of fires in factories are extinguished by staff with extinguishers and not the Fire Service. A smouldering bin or an overheated appliance is easily dealt with by trained personnel. However, there are times when this is not appropriate and this is addressed through our training.

Who is the responsible person within organisations or companies?

It is normally the person who has control within the workplace who carries the responsibility, such as the owner, occupier or employer. In a large company with multiple sites it would be the local manager.

What is progressive or lateral evacuation?

Progressive evacuation (sometimes called lateral evacuation) is a system where the occupants of a building can be moved to a place of ‘reasonable safety’ within a building without actually going outside. This would normally be the case where the occupants might be vulnerable or it is not appropriate to evacuate outside, such as hospitals, care homes and prisons. The principle would be to make use of the fire protection provided by cross-corridor fire doors to compartmentalise your building.

I am in a school, what is the best strategy?

Your aim is to achieve is the full, safe and coordinated evacuation from the building. Your strategy should plan for the safe movement of all occupants to the designated assembly point. In schools the teachers are normally responsible for the pupils they are teaching at the time, rather than having Fire Marshals allocated to zones. However, there should be separately appointed staff members to sweep the school, and these should normally be the same people tasked with investigating the fire alarm actuation. We run schools programmes where we will come in and address all staff during inset days.

What is a ‘stay put’ policy (sometimes called ‘stay safe’)?

‘Stay Put’ policies are difficult for some people to comprehend. The teachings in many environments are always, ‘if there is a fire then you should evacuate’. ‘Stay Put’ policies are normally in place in residential care homes and sheltered housing schemes. The principle is as follows: if the fire alarm actuates and the incident is not in your room/flat, then you do not need to leave. The building is built to withstand fire, and the dwelling will be contained within a fire-resisting compartment. If the door is kept closed the occupant will be safe. The Fire Service may decide to escort out the occupants at some stage but they should have confidence that they will be safe with the door closed. For further information, or guidance specific to a particular scheme, speak to the warden.

How do I keep myself safe at home?

Homes are still statistically the place people are most likely to die or receive injuries. Up to 60% of domestic property fires in the UK are caused by cooking. Vigilance around cooking is a good starting point. If using multiple sockets, these should be not be overloaded and items that use 13 amp fuses (consuming lots of electric) should be plugged directly into a wall. Always ensure that accumulated fluff is removed from a dryer filter. If using laptops ensure the cooling fans can ‘breath’ and don’t place them on soft furnishings such as bed covers as they can overheat. Falling asleep while smoking is very hazardous. Cigarette tips can cause smouldering fires which produce lots of Carbon Monoxide. CO gas is poisonous and around 1% concentration in air will render a person unconscious in a few breaths.

Keeping safe at home in the simplest form requires three fundamental elements:

The provision of working smoke detectors. If your house was built after 1992 these will be hard-wired into the mains.
Keeping your doors closed at bedtime, as you are most at risk when you are asleep. The seepage of smoke around the edges of your doors will activate the detector, but a breathable atmosphere will be maintained on the stairs. If you live in a more open-plan environment (where the stairs discharge into the lounge) then it is even more important to keep your bedroom doors closed.
Finally, ensure you have keys readily available to open the front door. uPVC doors in particular are extremely difficult to break down.

What about if I work in a hospital?

If you are the member of staff responsible for managing the fire response in your zone (which might be the whole ward itself), you may well find that you have a different type of alarm sound to indicate whether it is your ward that is involved (full alarm) or an adjacent Ward (intermittent alarm). This system is common in hospitals. There is a huge element of disruption when it comes to moving patients who may be reliant on life saving equipment, and the logistics of attempting a full evacuation of your zone each time the fire alarm sounds is unrealistic. Your priority is to sweep the area with the specific objective of ascertaining the reason for the alarm. If there is no obvious cause, you need to locate the device (detector head or break-glass call point) identifiable by a red LED light as this will be the reason for the alarm. You can contact members of the estates team who may silence the alarm until the Fire Service have authorised a reset. If you do discover a fire you should evacuate the immediate area and start to lock down. Remember fire doors are rated to a minimum of half an hour, so once you have closed the first door on a fire you have some time to focus on the evacuation.

How can I ensure resilience?

It is important to always have trained staff on duty. Wardens are appointed they should have deputies who will stand in to cover annual leave or sickness. When undertaking training it is always worth sending additional delegates on the training course. As we provide fixed price courses you can fill the course places without additional costs.

Is there a system which will improve resilience and efficiency?

We provide the training to Kellogg’s in North West and they have a fantastic system in place. Each Warden will pick up a card in the morning from the receptionist, who is the Head Marshal. When the hooks that hold all the cards are completely empty she knows that the building has full coverage. This serves as a daily reminder to the Wardens of their duties. In addition, when it comes to evacuation it is a simple matter of collecting the cards and when they are all reunited with the card holder the building can be pronounced clear.

Do I need a roll call system?

A roll call system can provide assurances that all staff are accounted for. We consider the roll call to be the ‘icing on the cake’. If everyone is accounted for the Fire Service will adopt a different approach to tackling the fire. The focus will be on fire extinguishment and not search & rescue. It IS important to get the ‘cake’ right first though! If someone is missing then arguably the sweeps of each zone have fallen short. It is important to ensure the full building is swept as quickly as possible by the team of Fire Marshals.

What information does the Fire Service require on arrival?

Any information is useful, principally a plan of the building and the grounds for larger buildings. This can then be used as a reference tool to talk to the Fire Service.

Other useful information might include:

Location of alarm/fire
Is anyone trapped or missing?
How to access the area, access points for personnel and vehicles
Any useful keys to access areas
Information on the evacuation process
Location of refuges and any disabled people that may be located there
Location of cut-off points for gas and electricity utilities
Any hazardous materials or processes contained within the building
Items of value to be protected
Locations of Water supplies, hydrants or local lodges etc.
An aerial view of the site, easily obtainable from online sources. In a time critical environment a picture can speak a thousand words!

Do I need to inform the Fire Service of anything in my premises?

If there are any on-site hazards that the Fire Service ought to know, such as: flammables or cylinders of acetylene, propane or oxygen. It would benefit the Fire Service to know if there is anything that would pose a significant risk to their crews in the event of fire. Are there any unusual hazards such as radiation sources, strange layouts, holes in floors etc.?

It is a good idea to provide a map or plan layout of the building to the Fire Service in the event of an incident.

How can I minimise false alarms?

False alarms are disruptive and can cost an organisation a substantial amount of money. They can have a significant negative effect on customers’ experience if badly managed.

The common causes of false alarms are:

Fumes from cooking (toasters etc.)
Dust from building work
Steam from showers
Electrical faults with detector heads
System faults
Increase in water pressure can prompt a sprinkler system to set off an alarm
There are incidences of balloons and birds setting off beam detectors in the atria of buildings

Some examples of things you can do to prevent the occurrence of false alarms (or Unwanted Fire Signals - UWFS) include:

Ensuring workmen cover nearby detector heads if they are likely to create dust
Informing staff and occupants to avoid contaminating the detectors with air fresheners or deodorants
Keeping doors closed when using a shower, particularly if a detector head is in close proximity
If using toasters do not leave them unattended
Learning from each actuation and putting measures in place to prevent reoccurrence

Does the Fire Service charge for false alarms?

The Fire Service does not levy a charge for false alarms. This is a common misconception amongst workforces. However, it is in your interest to reduce these occurrences as there is an economic cost and they are very disruptive for you and the Fire Service.

What are monitored fire alarm systems?

A monitored system is simply a ‘paid for’ service provided by private monitoring companies. When your alarm actuates it will be flagged by the monitoring service provider, who will then try to contact your site to see if you need the Fire Service. If there is no response they will contact your local Fire Control via 999 on your behalf to report the alarm. A fire alarm actuation with no additional information will prompt attendance of one fire engine from the closest available source. This provides a valuable degree of protection for those buildings that are not occupied all the time.

What if I have a false alarm and I have a monitored fire alarm system?

Once you have investigated the Fire Alarm actuation and you are satisfied that it is a false alarm, you should ‘silence’ the alarm but do not reset it. You should try to contact the monitoring company who will in turn contact the Fire Control. On occasion the attending crew will be turned back and you will be notified. Always wait for confirmation that the Fire Service has been turned back before resetting the system.

NOTE: Always notify your monitoring company before you do your weekly fire alarm test or you may find a fire engine outside your premises.

What if I have disabled staff or occupants with special needs?

You should always assess staff within your environment, and it is a good idea to try to manage things proactively. For example, a bariatric resident in a care home should be accommodated on the ground floor. You should plan for the safe evacuation of all staff and occupants by conducting a PEEP (Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan). You should be mindful of wheelchair users and anyone with impaired vision who may need assistance to get out. People with impaired hearing may not be aware that an audible fire alarm has activated, so a strobe light or a buddy system might be required.

What is a refuge?

A refuge is a place of relative safety within a building, normally behind a fire compartment door and near to an escape route. A wheelchair user would be able to safely remain in this area until a decision is made by the Head Marshal as to whether a full evacuation should take place. You should ensure that a wheelchair user is accompanied by staff who are trained in the use of evacuation chairs and that they are available. There should be a means of communication to the Head Marshal.

Should I provide jackets or surcoats to Fire Wardens?

The provision of jackets can be extremely useful where there are lots of staff and members of the public present. They assist the individual by giving them a sense of empowerment and confidence, and tell others that they are acting in an official capacity. Members of staff will be able to recognize them and look to them for guidance in the event of a fire alarm. We can supply these; please email for a quote.

If you can think of any other questions that would be useful to include, please contact us and we will update our FAQ sheet

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We previously used an offsite provider however we invited Steve to design a bespoke course for our site, not only was this specific to our building it was far more cost effective.