A well run Emergency Control Organisation does not occur by accident. It takes planning, method, and a leader who can explain decisions under stress and anxiety. PUAFER006 Lead an Emergency Control Organisation is the Australian expertise device designed for that leader. If you are the person who must collaborate wardens, liaise with emergency solutions, and bring the burden of the last get in touch with evacuation or shelter in position, this program is created for you.
I have actually trained and examined wardens and primary wardens in offices, healthcare facilities, logistics websites, institutions, and high rise residential towers. The via line is simple. Emergency situations really feel disorderly to the not really prepared, yet they end up being convenient when duties are clear, interactions crisp, and site info is exact. PUAFER006 develops those habits. This guide describes the program, where it sits together with PUAFER005, the functional expectations on primary wardens, and exactly how to examine whether your site is genuinely ready.
Where PUAFER006 Suits the Warden Pathway
Two devices underpin most workplace warden frameworks:
- PUAFER005 Run as component of an emergency situation control organisation covers the duty of wardens and communications officers. It concentrates on local area moves, standard risk analysis, making use of occupant warning systems, and reporting to the chief warden. PUAFER006 Lead an emergency situation control organisation steps up to regulate. The focus moves to handling the entire occurrence, assigning resources, interacting with emergency situation solutions, and making time important decisions with incomplete information.
If you are a floor warden or area warden, the PUAFER005 course is your baseline. If you are, or might serve as, chief warden or replacement chief warden, PUAFER006 is the appropriate degree. Lots of organisations mix both. Rotational leaders complete the PUAFER006 course, while the broader group completes PUAFER005 operate as part of an emergency control organisation, commonly branded as a fire warden course or emergency warden training.
What the PUAFER006 Course Trains You to Do
The competency emphasis is practical. You will plan, short, lead, and close out emergency situation cases according to AS 3745 Planning for emergencies in centers and your site's Emergency Plan.
Expect to cover:
- Command and control throughout the whole site, not just a solitary floor Incident triage and category, equating cues into decisions Communications self-control on two means radios, phones, PABX, and the occupant warning system Using the Emergency Control Organisation framework: chief warden, deputy, interactions policeman, wardens, and emergency treatment roles Liaison with fire, rescue, and police, including exactly how to hand over control, supply crucial data, and sustain their operations Occupant movement strategies, from partial presented evacuations to shelter in place, including mobility impaired planning Post case debrief, case coverage, and enhancement planning
Simulations are the heart of great chief warden training. Paper strategies are fragile till exercised. The trainer should push you right into clashing info and time pressure, then train the actions that maintain control: brief orders, closed loophole communication, and clean logs.
Chief Warden Responsibilities in Simple Terms
Titles differ across organisations: chief warden, chief emergency warden, chief fire warden. The core obligations do not. You own readiness and reaction for the center:
- Maintain the ECO. You make sure there are enough wardens on each flooring and change, that contact checklists are current, which the warden course documents depend on day. If your roster has holes, you load them with deputies or train more wardens. Keep the Emergency Plan live. Plans degeneration when buildings alter use, fitouts shift, or brand-new plant is mounted. You coordinate updates at least every year, and after any type of substantial change. That consists of evacuation layouts, setting up areas, and mobility impaired registers. Run drills that matter. 2 fire drills a year is common in offices, with more constant drills in complicated centers like medical care. You develop drills that test something brand-new each time: stairwell blockage, alternating assembly locations, or after hours response. Lead the event. You activate the ECO, pick the first technique, coordinate wardens, and control traffic to emergency situation solutions. You maintain a log, keep comms short and specialist, and you maintain people safe. Close the loophole. After any type of occasion or drill, you collect realities, write the occurrence record, and drive fixes. That could be a faulty door magnet, a dead radio battery, or a policy that put a specialist in a plant room without induction.
These tasks think authority. If administration has not given you the required to quit lifts, move residents, and call emptyings without asking approval, you are set up to stop working. Take care of that first.
The Link to PUAFER005 and Warden Training
A chief warden is just as efficient as their wardens. The PUAFER005 course builds the base: exactly how to move a location, exactly how to examine minor risks, exactly how to make use of a WIP phone or fire indicator panel under direction, and how to report to the principal. Fire warden training requirements differ with threat, however many work environments freshen PUAFER005 every two years, and hold drills at the very least annually.
Good chief warden training presumes you recognize what a warden can reasonably do. In a real discharge, a floor warden could clear 1,500 square metres in 4 to 6 minutes if passengers work together, yet that stretches when a lift lobby fills up or a gain access to card obstacle locks all of a sudden. Every chief warden I respect strategies with that said realistic look in mind.
Colours, Recognition, and Why They Matter
People still ask about fire warden hat colour and the chief warden hat colour. The convention is basic in numerous sites: red for wardens, white for the chief warden or chief emergency warden, and in some cases yellow for communications officers. Some sectors make use of vests rather than safety helmets. If your group selects helmets, maintain them available and classified. See to it every person knows what colour helmet the chief warden wears, because in smoke or sound, colour and a clear vest tag beat job titles.
Do not obtain priceless concerning the gear. Helmets and vests are devices to create visibility and authority. If you do not impose wearing them in drills, you will not see them throughout a real emptying when they are most needed.
Chief Warden Demands in the Workplace
Competency is more than a certificate. Employers are responsible for making sure the individual in the primary function can do. That usually implies:
- Completion of a PUAFER006 course from a credible RTO, freshened every 2 to 3 years or earlier if the site modifications significantly Familiarity with the website Emergency Plan, floor warden network, and building systems: the fire indication panel, automatic fire discovery and alarm, passenger warning system, WIP phones, stairwells, fire isolated hallways, and door release systems Enough practical exercises to build radar. Tabletop go through and live drills are both needed. Your expertise grows when you handle unpredictabilities like a handicapped lift or a dud coinciding with an actual clinical emergency
Some fields include background checks or medical fitness demands. If your website includes dangerous chemicals, an air travel safety zone, or critical health care, anticipate additional office specific chief warden requirements layered on top of the training.
Decision Making Under Pressure
The toughest part of the PUAFER006 lead an emergency control organisation function is triage. Alarm systems are binary. Fact is not.
Consider a 3 floor office where a smoke alarm activates in the cellar parking area at 10:12 a.m. Safety and security verifies no visible smoke at ground level. The fire indication panel shows Area 7 in alarm. Car park ventilation has turned on. A specialist was warm working an hour back in a riser. You have alternatives. You can stage an alert tone on all floorings and investigate, or go directly to discharge. Both are defensible. What matters is that you articulate your rationale, act emphatically, and change course if new info gets here. If the wardens report smoke scent at the first flooring stairways, you rise. If the car park warden locates an automobile with a scorched alternator and no active fire, you chief warden hat colour can reset systems and stand down.
Good chief fire warden training forces this option repeatedly. With method, you learn to secure on your Emergency Plan, after that adapt. You learn to keep comms short: "Level 1 warden, record stairwell problems," instead of open inquiries. You learn to establish a rate, normally in two minute cycles, where you upgrade, check security critical points, and revise orders.
Communication Discipline
Radios are like arteries. Block them and the ECO loses oxygen. PUAFER006 training courses insist on message structure. We instruct shut loop: sender gives a direction, receiver repeats the bottom lines, sender validates. It feels slow-moving when you are tranquil, and it protects against costly errors when you are not. Maintain transmissions short, avoid chatter, and use ordinary language. If your team insists on code name, maintain the list little and train it up until automatic.
The interactions police officer setting exists to protect the chief warden's headspace. In a large incident, the comms police officer regulates the network, prioritises messages, and drip feeds the chief with the essentials. That frees the principal to assume and decide.
The Most Common Failing Factors I See
It is simple to obsess on unusual, high drama events. In method, the same few problems threaten reaction across lots of offices:
- Keys and access. Door control is commonly forgotten. Wardens can not sweep if staircase doors lock behind them and their swipe does not hold open. Audit your gain access to controls and method opening fire doors securely throughout drills. Out of date layouts. Someone transforms a fitout, eliminates a wall, or shifts a server room. The discharge diagram remains the same. Throughout a smoke occasion, that error wastes minutes. Have a modification control activate that flags diagram updates. Radio batteries. A dead radio is a block. Construct a charging lineup, label radios by duty, and test radios at the beginning of daily in 24/7 sites. Mobility planning. There is frequently a polite list of movement impaired owners, then no real prepare for exactly how to help them down 2 flights without lifts. Do not wait. Method relocations to a risk-free refuge and purchase evacuation chairs where needed. Complacency after duds. A site that has actually had four duds in six months will be slower to respond on the 5th. The chief warden requires to reset assumptions and keep drills sensible. Where hassle alarm systems repeat, fix the reason with upkeep or redesign.
Resolve these and you remove the majority of the friction that triggers late discharges and muddled handovers.
What the Assessment Looks Like
The PUAFER006 course assessment normally involves a created part and a useful evaluation. The practical aspect ought to simulate at least 2 various emergency scenarios, such as a smoke alarm with staged emptying and a harmful spill with partial seclusion and shelter in place. You will be analyzed on:
- Following the Emergency Plan and AS 3745 framework Establishing command, instruction wardens, and using the communications loop Making timely choices, including when to evacuate, hold, or escalate Liaising with emergency situation solutions, including a structured handover: what occurred, where, what has been done, that is missing out on, and what systems are in operation Post event activities: debrief, reporting, and restorative actions
If the evaluation feels like a scripted box ticking workout, ask your RTO for an extra practical situation. You learn more from one unpleasant, realistic drill than 3 sanitized ones.
How Frequently to Refresh
Skills discolor without usage. The majority of workplaces set up chief warden training every 2 years, with an inner ability inspect each year. Sites with high turn over or intricate risks go annual. Tie refreshers to your drill cycle. If you transform alarm system panels, include a second stairwell pressurisation system, or upgrade your owner advising system, book a brief refresher for the chief warden and interactions officer to learn the panel's reasoning prior to the following drill.
Building a Team, Not a Solitary Factor of Failure
A chief warden is the conductor, but the orchestra matters more. Build depth. Train a replacement chief warden per shift, plus at least another with the ability of stepping up. In multi lessee buildings, coordinate with the building's base building chief warden and concur who leads when. Technique handovers between tenant and base structure during drills. Clear up setting up locations that do not clash with various other occupants' flow.
Small sites frequently assume the office supervisor will lead throughout the day. After that a clinical emergency takes place at 6:30 a.m. when contractors are the only occupants. Produce a straightforward after hours procedure. Give security or cleaning personnel a method to trigger the ECO and get a senior contact on the line swiftly. If your alarm system auto dials a monitoring centre, guarantee they have precise contact checklists, not names 2 years out of date.
Fire Warden Requirements in the Workplace
Beyond the primary function, make the warden network strong. Fire warden requirements differ, but a pragmatic technique is to aim for one warden per 20 to 30 owners, even more where owners need help. Ensure wardens complete the warden course PUAFER005, freshen every two years, and attend drills. Provide local knowledge. Walk them via plant areas, roof covering gain access to, fire tube reel places, manifold locations, and WIP phone points. If they have actually never ever seen the fire sign panel, they will certainly not be able to interpret it when asked to report a zone in alarm.
Wardens need soft abilities as well. The hardest part of evacuation is closed doors. It is encouraging a stubborn companion to leave their desk, or relaxing a nervous visitor. In training, function play those interactions. A couple of sentences stated with confidence, coupled with a red vest, can move a crowd.
The Duty of Chief Fire Warden Course Add Ons
Many RTOs plan PUAFER006 as chief warden training or a chief fire warden course. The most effective include value with site specific web content: your building systems, your flooring representations, your assembly locations. They must likewise cover chief fire warden responsibilities in lawful context, so you recognize what regulatory authorities expect and where monitoring's duties sit. If your site has high threat hazards, ask the company to include circumstance infuses pertinent to you, leadership of chief fire wardens such as gas detection alarm systems, ammonia plant journeys, or lithium battery fires in storage.
A Story from a Real Drill
In a distribution centre, we ran a presented evacuation throughout an electrical storm. Not excellent climate for a drill, but storms do not publication appointments. The chief warden chosen to maintain the workplace residents inside at a sanctuary factor and left the warehouse to an alternating assembly location under cover. 2 minutes after the alert tone, a forklift driver reported a solid scent of burning near the battery billing room. That changed the strategy. The chief rose to complete evacuation, and the interactions officer called emergency solutions. When the fire crew arrived they found a stopped working battery charger with small smoke damage.
Two lessons attracted attention. First, the chief's flexible method appreciated the weather condition however switched when the danger changed. Second, the forklift operator reported since he had been briefed the day before to inform wardens anything that did not really feel right. That instruction belonged to the chief warden's prep work, not an accident.
Integrating Medical and Protection Events
PUAFER006 is not only regarding fire. Chief warden obligations go across over with very first aiders and safety throughout clinical events, threats, or burglar events. Make a decision early that leads which stream. In many websites, the chief warden regulates evacuation and sanctuary choices while the very first aider manages client treatment. For safety and security threats, your Emergency situation Strategy ought to define when to go into lockdown, when to evacuate away from a threat, and how to connect without causing panic. Practice those decisions with brief tabletop exercises. You do not want the first time you choose between lockdown and evacuation to be throughout an actual threat.
What Excellent Resembles on the Day
When an auditor or a fire team turns up after an event, they observe the exact same markers of capability:
- The ECO activates within secs, not minutes Radios job and messages are short and shut loop The fire sign panel is understood, areas translated into areas, and a runner sent to verify Evacuation layouts match the building, and setting up location controllers can account for individuals and record gaps A neat handover takes place at the door for emergency solutions, covering what took place, what you have actually done, and any kind of particular hazards such as gas containers, battery spaces, or clinical oxygen
None of that gets here by luck. It is the outcome of a chief warden who took the PUAFER006 course seriously and developed a regimen of drills, briefings, and maintenance.
Selecting a PUAFER006 Course Provider
Look for an RTO that will educate at your site where possible, not just in a classroom. Ask how they customize circumstances to your building systems. Validate they assess functional leadership, not just created solutions. If you need both warden training and chief warden training, see if they can run PUAFER005 and PUAFER006 back to back with a joint drill. You keep energy when the entire ECO finds out with each other, after that divides into roles.
Check trainer experience. A fitness instructor that has actually stood in front of a fire indication panel at 2 a.m. with a beeping building and a cranky building supervisor will certainly teach various details than a person that has only check out the standard. That lived experience shows up in the tiny suggestions: how to hold a radio so the antenna removes your body, just how to silence a supplementary buzzer without resetting the panel, exactly how to talk with a lessee that asserts their conference can not be interrupted.
Training Regularity and Record Keeping
Keep training documents tidy. Preserve a matrix of wardens, days for PUAFER005 and PUAFER006, and drill participation. Include a column for radio checks and tools inspections. If you revolve team, publication brand-new starters right into the next warden course and set them with a skilled warden for their initial drill. After each drill, document attendance, timing from alarm system to assembly, and any kind of hold-ups. This trend data tells you whether you are improving.
Bridging the Space In between Paper and Practice
Many Emergency situation Plans look brightened and sit untouched. Make your own useful. Distill six to eight pages right into a quick activity card for the chief warden and wardens: activation actions, emptying alternatives, vital get in touches with, and the handover design template. Store extra cards with the headgears or vests. In a stressful event, no one intends to skim 60 pages of policy.
Pair the strategy with easy tactile checks. Stroll the stairways two times a year. Examine the WIP phones. Open up the FIP, reviewed the areas, and confirm you can analyze the map. Bring initially aiders into at the very least one drill every year so they recognize how to function within the ECO when a patient requires to be moved.
Final Guidance for New Principal Wardens
Confidence originates from reps. Do the PUAFER006 course, then request for even more circumstances. Welcome your replacement and comms officer to a short tabletop on a peaceful early morning. Beginning with a 10 minute drill that only examines radios and assembly. Construct to a full discharge with an injected issue, like a blocked stairwell. Keep the debrief sincere and brief. Take care of something each time. After a couple of cycles your team will certainly move with purpose.
The work carries weight. You hold the safety and security of many people for the very first mins of an emergency situation. With the right prep work and a self-displined Emergency situation Control Organisation, those mins will suffice. PUAFER006 gives you the structure. Your leadership turns it into action.
Take your leadership in workplace safety to the next level with the nationally recognised PUAFER006 Chief Warden Training. Designed for Chief and Deputy Fire Wardens, this face-to-face 3-hour course teaches critical skills: coordinating evacuations, leading a warden team, making decisions under pressure, and liaising with emergency services. Course cost is generally AUD $130 per person for public sessions. Held in multiple locations including Brisbane CBD (Queen Street), North Hobart, Adelaide, and more across Queensland such as Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Cairns, Ipswich, Logan, Chermside, etc.
If you’ve been appointed as a Chief or Deputy Fire Warden at your workplace, the PUAFER006 – Chief Warden Training is designed to give you the confidence and skills to take charge when it matters most. This nationally accredited course goes beyond the basics of emergency response, teaching you how to coordinate evacuations, lead and direct your warden team, make quick decisions under pressure, and effectively communicate with emergency services. Delivered face-to-face in just 3 hours, the training is practical, engaging, and focused on real-world workplace scenarios. You’ll walk away knowing exactly what to do when an emergency unfolds—and you’ll receive your certificate the same day you complete the course. With training available across Australia—including Brisbane CBD (Queen Street), North Hobart, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Cairns, Ipswich, Logan, Chermside and more—it’s easy to find a location near you. At just $130 per person, this course is an affordable way to make sure your workplace is compliant with safety requirements while also giving you peace of mind that you can step up and lead when it counts.