Neither title appears in fire safety law. What the law says is that the responsible person must nominate a sufficient number of competent people to implement the evacuation arrangements and must give them adequate training, and marshal and warden are the two words the market uses for those people. So the role is defined by the building's own fire risk assessment rather than by a syllabus, and the useful questions are how many, what they actually do, and what the training does and does not cover.
What is a fire warden, and how many a building needs
A fire warden is a member of staff nominated to carry out the evacuation arrangements: raising the alarm, sweeping their area, directing people to exits and reporting at the assembly point. The number is a finding of the fire risk assessment rather than a ratio, and the things that push it up are the number of floors and separate areas, the occupancy, shift and holiday cover, a sleeping risk, members of the public who do not know the building, and anybody who needs assistance to leave. The commonly quoted one per twenty people is a rule of thumb from training providers and is not in any regulation. What the assessment has to satisfy itself about is coverage on the worst day: every area swept, every assembly point staffed, and enough depth that two people being away does not leave a floor with nobody.
Fire warden responsibilities, before during and after an evacuation
Before is where most of the value is and where most schemes are weakest: walking the escape routes for obstructions and wedged doors, checking that extinguishers and signage are in place and in date, knowing the plan for anybody who cannot use the stairs, and reporting what they find to somebody who can fix it. During, the sequence is raise the alarm if it has not sounded, sweep the assigned area including the toilets and any room somebody works alone in, close doors behind them, direct people to the nearest usable exit rather than the familiar one, stop re entry, get to the assembly point and report their area as clear or not clear to whoever meets the fire service. After, the debrief: what was slow, which door stuck, who did not hear the alarm, and that goes back into the assessment rather than into a drawer. What is NOT in the role is firefighting beyond a first aid attempt on a small fire with a clear escape behind them, searching outside their area, or re entering a building for any reason.
The training, and what a certificate does not give you
A typical course is a half day covering fire behaviour, the building's own alarm and detection, extinguisher types and their limits, evacuation procedure and the warden's role, and many include a practical discharge. That is worth having and it is not competence for YOUR building. Competence is the course plus a building specific induction on the actual escape routes, assembly points, refuges, evacuation lifts, personal plans and the identity of the other wardens, plus taking part in a drill. The refresher interval is not set in law and annually or every two years is the common practice, with a drill at least annually being the more important habit. Keep the records of both the course and the building induction, because after an incident what will be asked is not whether somebody held a certificate but whether the arrangements were understood by the people who had to carry them out.
The role of the fire warden on a drill day
A drill is the only time the arrangements get tested, so the warden's job on the day is different from their job in an incident. Beforehand they should know it is happening but not necessarily when, because a fully announced drill measures compliance rather than behaviour. During it they do exactly what they would do for real: sweep their area, close doors, direct people, stop re entry and report their area clear at the assembly point. What they add is OBSERVATION, and the useful things to note are the time to clear, which doors stuck or were wedged, who ignored the alarm, whether anybody went back for a coat or a laptop, whether the assembly point was actually reached or people drifted off, and whether anybody who needs assistance was accounted for. Afterwards the warden's notes are the raw material for the debrief, and the debrief is what goes back into the fire risk assessment. A drill nobody recorded is an interruption rather than a test.
Questions people ask about role of a fire marshal
Can one person be the fire warden for a whole building?
In a small single storey premises with a handful of staff, yes, and that person is often the owner. As soon as there is more than one floor, more than one exit route or any shift working, one person cannot sweep the building and be at the assembly point, and the assessment should say how many are needed and why. The other constraint is absence: a single nominated person means the arrangements fail on their day off, which is the most common gap found at an inspection.
Do wardens have to use extinguishers?
No, and no member of staff is required to fight a fire. Training on extinguishers exists so that somebody can deal with a small fire safely if they choose to and have a clear escape behind them, and so that nobody picks up the wrong type. The instruction in the procedure should be explicit that evacuation comes first and that attempting a fire is optional, because an ambiguous instruction is how people get hurt trying to be helpful.
Is a fire warden the same as the responsible person?
No. The responsible person is the employer or whoever has control of the premises, and that duty cannot be delegated to a member of staff. A warden implements the arrangements; the responsible person makes them, pays for them, and answers for them. Naming a junior member of staff as the fire warden does not move the legal duty an inch, which is worth saying out loud in any organisation where the fire folder lives with the most willing volunteer.