PUAFER005 vs PUAFER006: Which Program Do You Need?
If you handle a facility or you have ever put on a fire warden hat throughout an evacuation drill, you currently know that great intents do stagnate individuals out of danger. Tranquil structure does. In Australia, that structure originates from an Emergency situation Control Organisation, set out under AS 3745, and the two across the country certified devices that bring it to life are PUAFER005 and PUAFER006. The very first prepares wardens to operate as part of an emergency control organisation. The second prepares leaders to lead that organisation as chief warden or deputy. The course codes appearance similar, but the assumptions, responsibilities, and training results are not the same.
I have sat in a lot of post-incident debriefs where complication about roles set you back mins. Those minutes really felt long. Choosing the best training reduces them.
The two devices at a glance
PUAFER005 Operate as component of an emergency situation control organisation is the basic fire warden course for the majority of work environments. It focuses on what to do when the alarm system goes, how to sweep and clear areas, just how to connect with the chief warden, and just how to relocate people to an assembly area. It builds muscle mass memory for wardens and flooring wardens.
PUAFER006 Lead an emergency situation control organisation is the chief warden course. It prepares you to take fee when points are unpleasant, coordinate wardens, communicate with emergency situation services, make evacuation decisions, and handle the occurrence log and post-incident actions. If you use the white headgear, or you might be handed that obligation, you require PUAFER006.
The simplest method to consider the difference is this: PUAFER005 is about executing a plan, PUAFER006 has to do with routing the plan and adjusting it under pressure.
Where these programs suit the Australian framework
AS 3745, the essential requirement for planning for emergencies in centers, establishes the Emergency situation Preparation Board and the Emergency Situation Control Organisation. The EPC creates and keeps the emergency situation plan. The ECO, led by the chief warden, turns on that plan throughout an occurrence. Many centers select a chief emergency warden, replacements, and area or flooring wardens. That hierarchy has functional significance when a genuine event unfolds, whether it is a smoke alarm, a chemical spill, a clinical emergency, or a bomb threat.
PUAFER005 maps to the warden functions. It emphasises useful discharge tasks, communication protocols, and safety and security checks. PUAFER006 maps to the chief warden and replacement functions. It emphasises management, choice production, and control, consisting of when the plan is incomplete or the circumstance alters mid-evacuation.
Not every office will run an evacuation every month, however every office that brings the public or groups right into a structure has tasks under WHS laws to take care of emergency situation dangers. Part of those duties is guaranteeing your wardens and primary wardens receive ideal training. Numerous insurers expect it. Major sites audit it.
Who needs PUAFER005 Operate as part of an ECO
If you are assigned as a fire warden, floor warden, location warden, or you routinely aid with discharge drills, PUAFER005 is the right beginning factor. The unit covers the nuts and screws of warden training, not just fire warden training. Realistically, a lot of events are not fires, so the training fire warden course details course covers a broader set of situations: alarm systems and system mistakes, clinical occasions, power outages, minor spills, and security threats along with fire response.

In a normal PUAFER005 course you can expect to exercise:
Recognising alarms and emergency warning systems, utilizing inner phones, radios, and warden intercom factors, and communicating clear messages to the principal warden.
Performing an area move, including checking areas, closing doors, managing mobility-impaired residents, using search pens, and reporting an all-clear.
Operating as a group, remaining within the chain of command, and adhering to the emergency strategy while utilizing situational judgment when the strategy does not fit the moment.
You will not be asked to play hero. PUAFER005 does not educate you to fight fires beyond the standard use of a portable extinguisher when risk-free to do so, and several carriers treat extinguisher usage as a separate, add-on module. The course concentrates on safe, organized discharge and accountability for people. That is the essence of a fire warden course.
A quick note on usefulness. Fire warden training requirements differ by constructing danger account, however a common tempo is to rejuvenate PUAFER005 every two years, with much shorter in-house refresher courses in between. If you have high turnover or you run public events, yearly refresher courses are smarter.
Who needs PUAFER006 Lead an ECO
If the title on your door reads centers supervisor, building manager, website supervisor, health and safety manager, or you are the person everybody anticipates to take charge during an emptying, your training course is PUAFER006 Lead an emergency control organisation. The distinction appears the very first time the alarm system panel shows 2 competing areas or smoke in the loading dock activates a second emptying mid-event.
PUAFER006 creates competency in:
Leading an ECO under practical time stress, consisting of designating wardens, establishing priorities, and switching methods when new details arrives.
Making emptying decisions. Complete emptyings are not constantly the front runner. Partial discharges or defend-in-place methods can be much safer in some facilities. PUAFER006 shows when and exactly how to apply them.
Liaising with emergency situation services, providing concise situational updates, turning over the event log, and following their directions without blowing up of your website responsibilities.

Managing post-incident activities: debriefing the group, recording lessons found out, upgrading the emergency situation strategy and layouts, and recommending changes to the EPC.
Chief warden responsibilities extend beyond the day of the occurrence. An excellent chief fire warden shapes drills so the team discovers as opposed to simply ticks a box. That consists of preparing a scenario that really tests the stairwell bottleneck you discovered last time.
In several offices, the chief warden requirements include holding PUAFER006 plus previous or concurrent conclusion fire warden of PUAFER005. Some training suppliers bundle both so you can tip up or down as needed.

What each course anticipates from you
PUAFER005 assumes you can adhere to directions, connect plainly, and move securely around your location. It matches staff across all departments. If you work part time, it still makes sense due to the fact that emergency situations do not maintain workplace hours.
PUAFER006 thinks you can maintain a trendy head while 3 conversations happen simultaneously. You will certainly handle radio traffic, alarm system panel codes, warden records, and resident practices. Educating scenarios often simulate synchronised issues: an obstructed exit, an individual who rejects to leave, a lift that stops in between floorings, a contractor unaccounted for. If the weight of that seems familiar from your day work, this course fits you.
Both programs are across the country recognized and provided by registered training organisations. Assessment generally consists of written concerns and functional situations. Instructors worth their cost will certainly adapt those circumstances to your website design and dangers rather than run common drills.
Fire warden requirements in the workplace
Every workplace should have a documented emergency situation strategy, discharge diagrams, and an ECO sized to the building. For a multi-storey workplace, a useful guideline is one warden per tenancy floor, with replacements to cover leave and shift adjustments. For a warehouse, you might need wardens for each and every zone plus someone at the front gate working with truck activities throughout a discharge. Retail and healthcare sites commonly need even more coverage because public motion is harder to control.
Fire warden needs do not stop at appointment. Wardens require radio accessibility and to understand where emergency equipment rests. They must understand emptying paths and the different path if a stairwell is blocked. They must know who the mobility-impaired occupants are, and the procedure for handling them safely.
Your emergency warden training ought to straighten with the details building features. If your website has a Vesda system, a gas reductions system in the server area, or complex gain access to control, your warden course ought to cover what occurs when those systems trigger. A standard introduction is not enough.
Colours, hats, and why they still matter
People sometimes laugh about warden and chief warden hat colours up until the power cuts and the lights drop to emergency situation mode. Visibility matters when people fear. Many Australian work environments follow this basic colour code:
Chief warden hat or headgear: white, often with the title published front and back.
Ordinary wardens put on red. Communications policemans commonly wear yellow. Various other neighborhood variants exist, however white for the chief warden and red for wardens prevails sufficient that both team and attending firemans will acknowledge it. If your group makes use of vests as opposed to headgears, stick to the exact same colour logic. When a person asks what colour helmet does a chief warden wear, the most useful solution is white, and keep it regular in your website kit.
What you in fact do on the day
The gap between training and practice shows up when the alarm appears during a customer presentation or midway via a shift change. A short image from a circulation centre shows how the units diverge in actual life.
At 10:43 a.m. a smoke alarm activates in the battery charging space. The closest floor warden listens to the alert on the radio, gets the red warden hat, and moves to the zone with one more warden to execute a quick move. They route staff to the nearest leave, guide a forklift motorist to park and get rid of the trick, and shut the charging room door without going into. They report to the chief warden that the area is leaving which one specialist is unaccounted for.
The chief warden, using the white helmet, checks the panel, validates the area, and asks the communications policeman to call 000 and wait for directions. They send out a deputy to the service provider sign-in point to recognize that is missing and what trade they are. They determine to evacuate the adjacent zone as a safety measure and instruct the front gate to hold distributions off-site. When firemens get here, the chief warden briefs them: resource zone, door standing, evacuation progress, and the missing specialist details. They hand over the occurrence log and follow the firemens' instructions while keeping oversight of the setting up location headcount.
Everything the wardens did matched PUAFER005 training. Whatever the principal did matched PUAFER006. The distinction is not comfort with radios or doors. It is the decision making at each fork, and the communication between roles.
Where PUAFER005 and PUAFER006 overlap
The overlap is intentional. Both include a refresher course on dangers, alarm system kinds, and the emergency strategy. Both include communication procedures, due to the fact that common language lowers complication. Both consist of the principles of security: do not place on your own in danger to take care of a trouble that belongs to specialists. Both additionally emphasise record maintaining, though in PUAFER005 it is restricted to simple reports and handing information to the chief warden, while in PUAFER006 it includes full incident paperwork and debriefs.
Some suppliers package PUAFER005 and PUAFER006 together for teams. It is not unusual for a little site to train five or six people in PUAFER005, and 2 in PUAFER006, creating coverage throughout shifts. In a big precinct, protection team may all hold PUAFER006 since they lead out-of-hours occurrences, with lessee wardens holding PUAFER005.
Choosing the ideal course for your function and site
Mistakes generally run in one of two directions. Firms nominate a favored employee as chief warden without providing PUAFER006, which leaves them really feeling underprepared the very first time they face a panel mistake that ends up being a real fire. Or companies send out everybody to PUAFER006 thinking much more senior-sounding training is much better. That wastes money and develops sound, since not everyone requires to practice leading. The majority of people need to practice executing.
Start with the strategy. Map your ECO versus your operating hours. Recognize who will certainly be on website when contractors work after hours, and who carries authority on weekends. Line up training to that truth. If the site supervisor gets on leave, who holds the white hat? If your retail centre runs pop-up occasions, who leads if an entertainer sets off a smoke equipment under a light beam detector? If your workplace is hybrid, who is regularly present to move each flooring? Job in reverse from those questions.
If you are a solitary location with a secure team, splitting your group right into wardens on PUAFER005 and a smaller core on PUAFER006 typically covers it. If you take care of numerous sites or high-risk locations, invest deeper: chief fire warden training for responsibility managers and security supervisors, and a broader base of emergency warden training for frontline staff.
Training shipment, evaluation, and sensible practice
A well-run PUAFER005 course uses your real evacuation representations and mimics your building's noisiest truth. If your stairwell tightens at degree three, the situation ought to make wardens problem-solve that canal. If you have multilingual staff, method radio expressions that are clear and simple. Good trainers do not just instruct doctrine. They rehearse the exact friction factors you will face.
A strong PUAFER006 course sets up competing top priorities and incomplete details. It needs to include a radio discipline workout where the chief warden has to puncture babble and assign networks. It must consist of a decision factor where defending in position is safer than evacuating, such as a smoke event on a warm day when leaving to a car park develops a warmth stress danger. It ought to consist of a handover to emergency services within two minutes, because time goes away when alarm systems are sounding.
Assessment is practical for both courses. Expect scenario-based jobs, short knowledge checks, and an evaluation of your communication. The very best value comes from a debrief that surfaces what worked out and what requires job. If your group entrusts a to-do list, like upgrading the professional sign-in procedure or moving a warden set, you got your cash's worth.
Fire warden training requirements and rejuvenate cycles
Standards and WHS regulation do not prescribe a single nationwide refresh period, however usual practice is to freshen PUAFER005 every 2 years and PUAFER006 every two to three years, with at the very least one discharge drill per year for every structure or occupancy. High-risk websites might drill quarterly. If your workforce passes on rapidly, roll new beginners right into a warden course within their initial few months.
Record your drills, consisting of times to evacuate and headcount reconciliation. If your emptying time slips from 6 minutes to 9 over a year, examine. Perhaps a door more detailed is sticking, or a brand-new layout created a blind corner. Your chief warden responsibilities include detecting these patterns and bringing them to the Emergency Situation Planning Committee with propositions to fix them.
Gear, radios, and basic upgrades that pay off
Training prepares individuals, however little tools selections lower friction. Radios that actually work in stairwells are worth the budget. Label your channels plainly. Maintain warden vests or hats with radios in clearly authorized cupboards on each floor. Put a laminated quick-reference card inside each package with basic motivates: panel area, emergency numbers, assembly areas, and the radio phone call indications for principal, interactions, and wardens. The very best chief warden hat colour or layout not does anything if the hat sits in a secured cabinet nobody can access after hours.
If you operate an university or large facility, think about a committed warden channel separate from general procedures. Throughout one drill at a hospital, a kitchen distribution telephone call swamped the radio while the chief fire warden attempted to confirm an all-clear. That is not the cooking area's fault, it is a network strategy issue.
Common inquiries responded to plainly
What colour headgear does a chief warden wear? White. Maintain it consistent and noticeable, whether you make use of a helmet or a vest.
Do I require PUAFER006 to be a deputy chief warden? Yes. Deputies might lead any time. If you are a deputy on paper only, that gap will appear when the principal is off-site.
Can a little office get by with simply PUAFER005? Potentially, if your structure administration supplies a chief warden for the whole facility. Numerous multi-tenant structures operate this way. In that situation, your occupancy appoints wardens and a coordinator that liaises with the building's chief warden. Ask building administration regarding their expectations.
Does a chief fire warden course cover bomb threats and safety and security incidents? Skilled PUAFER006 training addresses a series of emergencies beyond fires, including bomb risks, dubious plans, and individual dangers. It will certainly not turn you right into safety and security, however it will certainly offer you a structure to lead safely until experts take over.
Are there clinical prerequisites? Both systems require you to move securely and communicate. If you have movement constraints, discuss your duty with your EPC. Numerous sites use friend systems and assign functions that fit various capabilities.
Pitfalls that training can fix
I have actually seen wardens search alone since they believed it was reliable. It is not. Pair up, sweep methodically, and mark got rid of locations. I have actually seen principals wait on assurance from the panel while smoke thickened in a basement. Early, conventional choices save time. I have actually seen wardens suggest with a team member that did not wish to leave during a drill. The far better strategy: acknowledge, do not intensify, and escalate to the chief for a tactical feedback. Training provides you scripts and practices that maintain points moving.
Another usual concern is missing out on specialists. Your fire warden requirements in the workplace should include a service provider administration process that links into evacuation head counts. If you count on the memory of a website supervisor, you will lose mins. A basic sign-in linked to a warden's clipboard conserves them.
How to range your next training session
Before booking a PUAFER005 course or a PUAFER006 course, stroll your website with the instructor or share exact diagrams. Explain understood migraines like secured inter-tenancy doors, areas under refurbishment, and one of the most usual after-hours tasks. If your team has actually had near misses out on, share them. Ask the fitness instructor to tailor scenarios. Off-the-shelf material is a starting factor, not an endpoint.
For combined groups throughout numerous structures, take into consideration a split day: morning PUAFER005 for wardens, mid-day PUAFER006 for leaders, with a consolidated drill at the end to bring the assemble. The drill will certainly reveal radio etiquette problems and handover gaps faster than any type of class slide.
Bottom line: match the program to the responsibility
If your work is to move people, check rooms, and report up, register in PUAFER005 Operate as part of an emergency control organisation. If your task is to make the phone call, coordinate, and own the result, enlist in PUAFER006 Lead an emergency control organisation. Plenty of professionals hold both, because jobs progress and rosters modification. The chief warden requirements are heavier, however the fulfillment of a clean, calm discharge is genuine. When the fire warden course settles, you will certainly feel it in the silent self-confidence of a team that knows the plan and depends on the individual in the white hat.
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.