Question: We operate a 52-bed residential aged care facility that runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We currently have two maintenance workers trained as fire wardens who work 5 days a week, 8am–4pm, so aren’t present around the clock.

We have allocated registered nurses as team leaders on every shift and they double as emergency coordinators. However, they don’t receive any further training than our mandatory fire and emergency training, which is delivered to all staff annually.

Should we have trained fire wardens on all shifts, 24/7 – for instance, by training all registered nurses to be fire wardens? Also, is there a need to have deputy fire wardens?