Hi

I recently moved jobs to a counselling agency. We have 4 members of staff, volunteer counsellors and clients who come in daily.

We are a very low risk organisation.

I did fire fighting equipment training about 5 years ago so my questions are:

With 4 employees how many fire wardens should there be by law?

As long as I felt competent using equipment would I still need to be retrained?

Many thanks

There is no is no set requirement for the number of competent persons (fire wardens) The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 says the responsible person must appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the preventive and protective measures. If you consider your self competent using the equipment, the definition of competent is in the order, then that's fine and you could train everybody else who should receive regular training on the use of the equipment and the evacuation plan. Has the RP carried out a fire risk assessment?

Go to http://www.firesafe.org.uk/ for more information.

Hi,

I am currently considering a position within a hotel and was wondering if there is a minimum recommended number of employees who are required to be present in the event of a fire evacuation. The hotel has 125 bedrooms and the marshalling of the potential number of people seems excessive for one person to deal with. Could you please advise me if there should be more than one staff member present overnight.

Thanks

This is for the Responsible Person (RP) as defined by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 to decide how many competent persons he/she requires to appoint for the effective evacuation of the premises and assist him in undertaking the preventive and protective measures. Check out article 18.Safety assistance for more details.

There will be fire safety companies that demand you need so many fire wardens but it will normally depend on the outcome of the fire risk assessment. For what you have described. You seem to have small numbers of people and probably have a small, simple premise. Normally having good fire awareness training for your employees along with a well written Fire Emergency Evacuation Plan (FEEP) and visitors log book would be more than sufficient for this type of occupation.