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GUIDE · FIRE SAFETY
Reviewed 21 Oct 2026 · Next review Oct 2027 · Northlight Training
THE SHORT ANSWER
There is no ratio. Count the areas.
There is no fire marshal ratio in Northern Ireland law. The Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 require a sufficient number of competent people to carry out your evacuation procedures, and your fire risk assessment and emergency plan decide what sufficient means. Our starting point is one trained fire marshal for each area that needs checking separately in an evacuation, whenever people are in that area.
And the number of marshals you need on site is not the number of people you need to train.
Planning first aid cover too? How many first aiders do I need in my workplace?
THE ROLE
What is a fire marshal?
A fire marshal, often called a fire warden, is a member of staff trained to help put your evacuation plan into action.
What the law calls them
Neither title appears in Northern Ireland fire safety law. The law talks about competent persons: people with sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to carry out the evacuation procedures properly. Fire marshal is simply the name most workplaces give that role.
Two duties in the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 sit behind it.
The Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010
Regulation 14 requires a sufficient number of competent persons to implement the procedures for evacuating people from the premises.
Regulation 12 requires competent persons to implement fire-fighting measures where necessary. Their number, training and equipment must be adequate for the size of the premises and its specific hazards.
The duty to make these arrangements sits with the employer and anyone else who controls the premises. Northern Ireland guidance calls this the appropriate person. If you’ve read GB guidance, you’ll have seen the term responsible person: the duties are similar, but the legislation is different.
Appointing fire marshals doesn’t transfer that responsibility. The employer still answers for the fire safety arrangements, even when a nominated person gets something wrong.
WHAT THEY DO
What do fire marshals actually do?
Northern Ireland’s fire safety risk assessment guides, published for Northern Ireland and hosted by NIFRS, describe the role in practical terms.
In an evacuation
Help people leave, guiding them to the nearest safe exit
Check their area to make sure everyone has left
Use firefighting equipment, but only if it’s safe and they’re trained to
Shut down dangerous equipment where the plan says so
Report to the person in charge at the assembly point
Help meet the Fire and Rescue Service and pass on what they know
Day to day
Notice blocked exits and wedged-open fire doors
Report faults
Make sure new colleagues and visitors know what to do when the alarm sounds
Their first job is always getting people out.
Every marshal should know their own area: its exits, its refuges and where to report once it is clear.
What a fire marshal shouldn’t do matters just as much. They shouldn’t go back into the building, search areas that are unsafe to enter, or tackle a fire beyond their training. Northern Ireland guidance is clear that people with no training shouldn’t be expected to fight fires at all.
NORTHLIGHT TIP
Give every marshal a named area
“Help with the evacuation” isn’t an instruction anyone can follow when the alarm is sounding. “You check the first floor, east side: offices, toilets and the store room, then report to the assembly point” is. If you can’t name the area each marshal is responsible for, that’s usually the first gap to fix.
NO FIXED RATIO
Why there’s no fire marshal ratio
Search for how many fire marshals you need and you’ll quickly find ratios.
“One fire marshal for every 50 people in low-risk premises.”
Other sites suggest one per 20 people in medium-risk premises, one per 15 in high-risk premises, or one for every 10 staff. These figures come from training providers. We haven’t found them in Northern Ireland law, NIFRS guidance or the Northern Ireland fire safety guides, and they don’t agree with each other.
The bigger problem is that they count people. The Northern Ireland guides don’t size the role by headcount. They talk about designating particular areas for people to check, sweeping the premises and taking a roll call.
60 staff in both. Different answers.
One open-plan floor
One person could walk the whole space, check the toilets and kitchen, and reach the exit within a few minutes.
Three floors and a basement store
Nobody can check all of that quickly and safely while also getting out.
So start with the layout, not the headcount.
1
HOW MANY AREAS NEED CHECKING?
Count the areas, then test the number
Count every part of your premises that would need its own person to check it and guide people out.
That might be a floor, a wing, a production area, a warehouse, a basement or an outbuilding. Count the separate areas across the whole building, not just the floors.
IN PRACTICE
3 floors
2 wings on each
6 areas
An office over three floors
Each floor has an east wing and a west wing, each with its own offices, toilets and kitchen. One person can’t sweep both wings and still get out quickly.
So the starting point is six marshals on site whenever the building is occupied, not three.
THE STARTING NUMBER
Six areas, so six marshals on site.
Then test that number against what happens in your premises.
People who don’t know the building
Customers, visitors, contractors and members of the public are covered by fire safety law. They’re also the people most likely to head for the door they came in by, rather than the nearest safe exit.
Visitors don’t add marshals by formula
A busy shop floor doesn’t change how many areas you have.
But they change where marshals stand
and what they do: directing people at a junction, clearing a shop floor or checking a public toilet.
People who need help to get out
If someone needs assistance to evacuate, plan that separately, usually through a personal emergency evacuation plan. The person helping them shouldn’t also be the marshal responsible for sweeping an area: they can’t do both at once.
Your plan must not rely on the Fire and Rescue Service to evacuate anyone. Northern Ireland guidance is explicit about that.
Someone to take charge
Somebody needs to receive reports at the assembly point, check that every area has been cleared and meet the Fire and Rescue Service. In small premises, one of your marshals can do this once they’ve checked their own area. In larger or busier premises, make it a separate named role, because the person in charge needs to be at the assembly point while the sweep is still happening.
WHEN A GENERAL COUNT ISN’T ENOUGH
Care homes, healthcare premises and anywhere people sleep, buildings that use phased evacuation or staff alarms, premises with hazardous processes or substances, and very large or complex sites need a more specific approach. Staffing has to match the emergency plan at the worst realistic time, which is often night. Use the Northern Ireland fire safety guide for your type of premises and a competent fire risk assessor.
Get a starting number for your premises
Northlight’s Fire Marshal Requirements Calculator asks about your premises, layout, shifts and the people on site, then gives a starting number of marshals to have on site and to train. The total includes one trained deputy for each shift. Use the result alongside your fire risk assessment, not instead of it.
2
HOW MANY PEOPLE TO TRAIN?
Train for the real rota
This is where the answer usually grows.
Suppose a two-floor office with 35 staff needs one marshal on each floor. Two marshals on site, so two people to train? Not quite. Two trained people only give you two marshals when both are in the building, not when one is on annual leave, working from home, at a meeting off site, starting late or off sick.
2
marshals needed on site
3
people to train, so one can be off
Shifts multiply the training, not the cover
IN PRACTICE
2 areas
Day and night shifts
2 marshals trained
A warehouse with a mezzanine office
The warehouse floor and the mezzanine office each need checking, on a day shift and a night shift. That’s two marshals on each shift: at least four people to train, and six once each shift has a trained deputy.
The business has trained two marshals, one for each area. Both work days.
Day
+
+
Night
None trained
WHAT IT MEANS
Both areas are covered by day. On the night shift, nobody is.
How to close it: train marshals who work nights, with a deputy on each shift.
Look at who is there, and when
Think about
The first person to unlock in the morning
Staff who work late or at weekends
Cleaners, security and maintenance staff working outside normal hours
Busy periods, such as events, peak trading or open days
You don’t necessarily need a full team of marshals for one key-holder at 7am. But somebody present needs to know what to do, and your emergency plan should say who.
3
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE IS OFF?
Plan for absence
Northern Ireland guidance expects your arrangements to include cover when nominated people are on leave.
The simplest test we know is to take one person out of the rota, and see what’s left.
NORTHLIGHT TIP
Take one person off the rota
List who covers each area on each shift. Then remove one marshal, as if they were on two weeks’ annual leave. If any area, on any shift, is left with nobody, you’ve found the gap: train a deputy who can cover that area, or change who covers it. Then try a second person. If two absences at once are realistic, your arrangements should survive that too.
Suppose a business already has five trained marshals, all in the same department, on the same floor. On paper, five marshals. In practice, one area well covered and the rest of the building with nobody.
THE ANSWER
Every area, every shift, someone trained.
What matters isn’t how many certificates you hold. It’s whether every area has a trained person whenever people are there.
That works both ways. If your marshals already cover every area and shift, with absence allowed for, the next step might be a briefing or a fire drill, not a course.
TRAINING AND DRILLS
What training do fire marshals need?
Fire marshals need more than general fire awareness.
Northern Ireland guidance says staff with a supervisory role in a fire should be told what your fire risk assessment found and receive additional training. For fire marshals, that training may include:
The fire safety strategy for your premises
How people behave in a fire, and how to direct them to the right escape route
How to search an area safely and recognise places that are unsafe to enter
The difficulties some people, particularly disabled people, may have in escaping, and any special arrangements in place
Using firefighting equipment
What fixed systems such as sprinklers are for
Reporting faults, incidents and near misses
A recognised qualification gives you a consistent foundation. Our one-day Fire Marshal course leads to the STA Level 2 Award for Fire Marshall Training. But no course knows your building. Each marshal also needs to walk their own area, know its exits and refuges, and understand your emergency plan.
Training covers firefighting equipment, but a marshal’s first job is always getting people out.
Practise it
Northern Ireland guidance suggests a fire drill at least once a year, or more often if your fire risk assessment calls for it or staff turnover is high. A drill is the best test of whether your numbers work. Did every area get checked? Did the reports reach the person in charge? What happened when one exit was treated as blocked?
Under the 2010 Regulations, fire safety training has to be repeated periodically where appropriate, and given again when someone is exposed to new or increased risks. We’d treat becoming a fire marshal as one of those changes.
THE NORTHLIGHT TAKEAWAY
Is every area covered?
01
Name the areas
Which parts of your premises need their own person to check them?
Floors, wings, basements and outbuildings, not headcount.
02
Map who is there
Who is on site in each area, on each shift?
Early starts, late finishes, visitors and anyone who needs help to get out.
03
Train a deputy
Is every area still covered when someone is off?
Take one person off the rota and look for the gap.
04
Run a drill
Does a drill show every area checked and reported?
Try it with one exit treated as blocked.
KEEP READING
Planning first aid cover as well?
Fire marshals and first-aiders are separate roles, but they’re planned the same way: work out the cover you need, then train enough people to keep it in place through shifts and absence.
TRAINING FOR THIS TOPIC
Courses that cover this
Delivered at your workplace, anywhere in Northern Ireland.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, Articles 25, 26 and 52: duties of employers and people in control of premises.
Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010, regulations 2, 12, 14 and 20: competent persons, fire-fighting, evacuation procedures and training.
NIFRS: Business fire safety. Northern Ireland fire safety duties and staff training.
NIFRS: Fire safety guides. Northern Ireland fire safety risk assessment guides for each type of premises.
DHSSPS (now Department of Health): Fire Safety Risk Assessment: Offices and Shops. Part 2, sections 7.3 and 7.4, on instruction, fire marshals, training and fire drills.
DHSSPS (now Department of Health): Fire Safety Law: The Evacuation of Disabled People from Buildings. Planning assisted evacuation.
Safety Training Awards: STA Level 2 Award for Fire Marshall Training. Qualification details.
Reviewed
21 Oct 2026
Next review by
21 Oct 2027
Written by
Northlight Training
Reviewed sooner if Northern Ireland fire safety legislation, the NIFRS fire safety guides, the STA qualification or the Fire Marshal Requirements Calculator changes.