Fire Marshal Duties: What the Role Actually Involves and Who Needs One

 

Most workplaces need someone to actually run an evacuation when the alarm goes off, not just a document that says one should happen. That person is the fire marshal, sometimes called a fire warden, and the role gets confused a lot with the "competent person" who does your fire risk assessment. They are not the same job, and mixing them up is one of the more common gaps I see when I review a site's fire arrangements.

What a fire marshal actually does

Day to day, a fire marshal keeps an eye on the basics: fire doors not being wedged open, escape routes not getting blocked with stock or furniture, extinguishers not going missing from their points. When the alarm sounds, their job is to sweep their assigned area, check toilets and side rooms people forget about, direct others to the nearest usable exit, and report to the assembly point so you know everyone assigned to them is accounted for. They are not expected to fight a fire, and should never be put in a position where that's the expectation.

Who needs to appoint one

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the "responsible person" for a workplace must appoint enough competent people to assist with fire safety, and in practice that means fire marshals for anything beyond a very small, simple premises. There is no fixed headcount in the legislation, it is based on what your fire risk assessment identifies as needed to safely evacuate the building, factoring in floor layout, number of occupants, and whether anyone present needs additional help to get out. A single open plan office might need two or three, a multi floor building with public access usually needs one per floor as a minimum.

Training and how often to refresh it

Fire marshal training is typically a half day course covering fire behaviour, use of extinguishers, evacuation procedures, and your specific building's layout and escape routes. There is no legal requirement stating an exact refresher interval, but the accepted good practice is annually, and sooner than that if your premises layout changes, if you get new fire equipment, or if a near miss or drill throws up gaps in how people actually responded. A fire marshal who was trained three years ago on a building that has since been reconfigured is not someone you can rely on in an actual evacuation.

What happens if you don't have one

If an inspecting officer visits and finds no one has been appointed, or the people appointed have had no training, that is treated as a breach of the Order itself, not a minor paperwork issue, and it sits on top of whatever your competent person arrangements look like. Enforcement can mean an improvement notice with a deadline to fix it, or in serious cases a prohibition notice stopping you using part or all of the building until it's sorted. It is also one of the first things that falls apart during an actual fire, when untrained staff either don't evacuate properly or don't know who is meant to be checking they did.

If you want your fire marshal numbers and evacuation plan checked by someone who does this for a living, Tony Carlyon's fire risk assessment service covers UK properties and businesses of any size and will flag it directly if your current arrangements fall short.
And if you want a quick way to check what else your premises should have covered, grab the free UK landlord and small business compliance checklist and I'll send it straight over.

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