PUAFER005 vs PUAFER006: Which Training Course Do You Required?
If you take care of a facility or you have actually ever before placed on a fire warden hat during a discharge drill, you currently recognize that good objectives do stagnate individuals safe. Tranquil structure does. In Australia, that framework comes from an Emergency Control Organisation, laid out under AS 3745, and both nationally recognized devices that bring it to life are PUAFER005 and PUAFER006. The initial prepares wardens to operate as part of an emergency control organisation. The 2nd prepares leaders to lead that organisation as chief warden or replacement. The course codes appearance similar, yet the expectations, obligations, and training outcomes are not the same.
I have actually sat in too many post-incident debriefs where confusion regarding duties cost minutes. Those minutes felt long. Choosing the right training reduces them.
The 2 systems at a glance
PUAFER005 Operate as component of an emergency situation control organisation is the standard fire warden course for most work environments. It focuses on what to do when the alarm goes, how to sweep and clear locations, how to interact with the chief warden, and how to move people to an assembly location. It builds muscle memory for wardens and floor wardens.
PUAFER006 Lead an emergency situation control organisation is the chief warden course. It prepares you to take fee when things are untidy, coordinate wardens, communicate with emergency solutions, make evacuation decisions, and manage the incident log and post-incident actions. If you wear the white safety helmet, or you may be handed that responsibility, you need PUAFER006.
The simplest means to consider the difference is this: PUAFER005 has to do with executing a plan, PUAFER006 is about directing the strategy and adapting it under pressure.
Where these training courses suit the Australian framework
AS 3745, the key requirement for preparing for emergency situations in centers, develops the Emergency Preparation Committee and the Emergency Control Organisation. The EPC creates and maintains the emergency plan. The ECO, led by the chief warden, activates that strategy during an occurrence. Most centers select a chief emergency warden, replacements, and area or flooring wardens. That power structure has functional definition when a genuine event unravels, whether it is a smoke alarm, a chemical spill, a medical emergency, or a bomb threat.
PUAFER005 maps to fire warden the warden functions. It stresses functional discharge tasks, communication procedures, and safety checks. PUAFER006 maps to the chief warden and replacement roles. It emphasises management, choice making, and sychronisation, consisting of when the strategy is imperfect or the scenario alters mid-evacuation.
Not every work environment will run a discharge each month, however every work environment that brings the general public or teams into a building has tasks under WHS regulations to take care of emergency threats. Component of those tasks is ensuring your wardens and chief wardens receive ideal training. Lots of insurance firms anticipate it. Major websites audit it.
Who requires PUAFER005 Run as component of an ECO
If you are selected as a fire warden, flooring warden, area warden, or you regularly help with evacuation drills, PUAFER005 is the right starting point. The unit covers the nuts and screws of warden training, not simply fire warden training. Realistically, a lot of incidents are not fires, so the training course covers a broader set of situations: alarms and system mistakes, clinical occasions, power interruptions, minor spills, and security risks together with fire response.
In a normal PUAFER005 course you can anticipate to practice:
Recognising alarms and emergency warning systems, making use of internal phones, radios, and warden intercom points, and relaying clear messages to the principal warden.
Performing a location move, consisting of examining spaces, shutting doors, managing mobility-impaired owners, using search markers, and reporting an all-clear.
Operating as a team, remaining within the pecking order, and complying with the emergency plan while utilizing situational judgment when the strategy does not fit the moment.
You will certainly not be asked to play hero. PUAFER005 does not educate you to fight fires beyond the basic use a mobile extinguisher when risk-free to do so, and several carriers deal with extinguisher use as a different, add-on module. The course concentrates on risk-free, organized evacuation and accountability for people. That is the essence of a fire warden course.

A fast note on usefulness. Fire warden training requirements differ by constructing threat profile, however a typical tempo is to rejuvenate PUAFER005 every 2 years, with much shorter internal refreshers in between. If you have high turn over or you run public events, annual refreshers are smarter.
Who requires PUAFER006 Lead an ECO
If the title on your door reads facilities manager, building supervisor, website supervisor, health and safety supervisor, or you are the person everybody anticipates to take fee throughout an emptying, your training course is PUAFER006 Lead an emergency control organisation. The distinction turns up the first time the alarm system panel shows two contending areas or smoke in the filling dock activates a second emptying mid-event.
PUAFER006 establishes expertise in:
Leading an ECO under sensible time stress, including designating wardens, establishing concerns, and changing approaches when brand-new details arrives.
Making emptying decisions. Complete evacuations are not always the first choice. Partial emptyings or defend-in-place methods can be safer in some centers. PUAFER006 teaches when and exactly how to apply them.
Liaising with emergency services, giving succinct situational updates, handing over the event log, and following their instructions without blowing up of your site responsibilities.

Managing post-incident activities: debriefing the team, videotaping lessons found out, updating the emergency situation plan and representations, and suggesting modifications to the EPC.
Chief warden obligations extend beyond the day of the incident. A good chief fire warden forms drills so the group discovers instead of just ticks a box. That includes intending a scenario that actually checks the stairwell traffic jam you uncovered last time.
In several workplaces, the chief warden requirements include holding PUAFER006 plus prior or concurrent conclusion of PUAFER005. Some training service providers pack both so you can tip up or down as needed.
What each course anticipates from you
PUAFER005 presumes you can adhere to instructions, connect clearly, and move safely around your area. It matches team throughout all divisions. If you function part time, it still makes sense because emergency situations do not keep workplace hours.
PUAFER006 thinks you can keep an awesome head while 3 discussions take place simultaneously. You will handle radio web traffic, alarm panel codes, warden reports, and resident behaviour. Educating scenarios usually simulate simultaneous concerns: a blocked departure, an individual who declines to leave, a lift that quits in between floors, a professional unaccounted for. If the weight of that seems acquainted from your day task, this course fits you.
Both courses are country wide accredited and provided by signed up training organisations. Analysis commonly includes written questions and sensible circumstances. Fitness instructors worth their cost will certainly adjust those scenarios to your website layout and threats as opposed to run common drills.
Fire warden demands in the workplace
Every work environment must have a documented emergency situation plan, discharge representations, and an ECO sized to the structure. For a multi-storey workplace, a practical rule is one warden per occupancy flooring, with deputies to cover leave and change changes. For a storage facility, you might need wardens for every area plus somebody at the front gateway collaborating truck motions throughout a discharge. Retail and healthcare websites usually call for more coverage because public motion is harder to control.
Fire warden needs do not quit at appointment. Wardens require radio accessibility and to recognize where emergency situation equipment sits. They must understand evacuation paths and the different path if a stairwell is blocked. They ought to understand that the mobility-impaired occupants are, and the process for managing them safely.
Your emergency warden training need to align with the specific structure features. If your website has a Vesda system, a gas suppression system in the web server space, or complex gain access to control, your warden course should cover what takes place when those systems activate. A standard review is not enough.
Colours, hats, and why they still matter
People often laugh about warden and chief warden hat colours till the power cuts and the lights go down to emergency situation setting. Exposure issues when people are anxious. Most Australian offices follow this straightforward colour code:
Chief warden hat or headgear: white, usually with the title printed front and back.
Ordinary wardens use red. Communications policemans commonly put on yellow. Other local variations exist, yet white for the chief warden and red for wardens prevails enough that both staff and going to firefighters will acknowledge it. If your team makes use of vests rather than helmets, stick with the very same colour logic. When a person asks what colour helmet does a chief warden wear, the most valuable answer is white, and keep it regular in your website kit.
What you in fact do on the day
The gap in between training and method appears when the alarm system seems throughout a client discussion or halfway through a shift modification. A short picture from a circulation centre shows how the systems deviate in genuine life.
At 10:43 a.m. a smoke detector sets off in the battery charging area. The closest floor warden listens to the alert on the radio, grabs the red warden hat, and moves to the zone with an additional warden to perform a fast sweep. They direct personnel to the local exit, overview a forklift motorist to park and remove the secret, and close the charging space door without getting in. They report to the chief warden that the zone is leaving which one contractor is unaccounted for.
The chief warden, putting on the white headgear, checks the panel, confirms the zone, and asks the interactions policeman to call 000 and await directions. They send a deputy to the professional sign-in indicate recognize that is missing and what profession they are. They make a decision to evacuate the nearby zone as a preventative measure and instruct the front entrance to hold distributions off-site. When firemans arrive, the chief warden briefs them: source zone, door status, discharge development, and the missing out on service provider information. They turn over the case log and follow the firemens' instructions while keeping oversight of the assembly location headcount.
Everything the wardens did matched PUAFER005 training. Whatever the principal did matched PUAFER006. The difference is not comfort with radios or doors. It is the choice making at each fork, and the interaction between roles.
Where PUAFER005 and PUAFER006 overlap
The overlap is intentional. Both consist of a refresher course on dangers, alarm kinds, and the emergency situation plan. Both include communication protocols, due to the fact that common language reduces complication. Both include the ethics of safety and security: do not place yourself in danger to take care of an issue that comes from specialists. Both additionally emphasise record keeping, though in PUAFER005 it is limited to straightforward records and handing info to the chief warden, while in PUAFER006 it reaches full case documentation and debriefs.
Some companies bundle PUAFER005 and PUAFER006 with each other for teams. It is not unusual for a small website to educate five or 6 people in PUAFER005, and two in PUAFER006, developing protection across shifts. In a large precinct, protection staff may all hold PUAFER006 because they lead out-of-hours cases, with occupant wardens holding PUAFER005.
Choosing the appropriate training course for your function and site
Mistakes generally run in either directions. Companies nominate a favored employee as chief warden without giving them PUAFER006, which leaves them feeling underprepared the first time they deal with a panel fault that becomes an actual fire. Or business send out everybody to PUAFER006 thinking more senior-sounding training is better. That wastes money and develops noise, because not everyone needs to exercise leading. Most individuals require to practice executing.
Start with the strategy. Map your ECO versus your operating hours. Determine who will get on website when contractors work after hours, and that lugs authority on weekend breaks. Straighten training to that truth. If the site supervisor gets on leave, that holds the white hat? If your retail centre runs pop-up occasions, that leads if an entertainer triggers a smoke device under a beam detector? If your workplace is hybrid, who is consistently present to sweep each floor? Work in reverse from those questions.
If you are a single location with a steady team, splitting your team right into wardens on PUAFER005 and a smaller sized core on PUAFER006 normally covers it. If you take care of multiple websites or risky areas, spend deeper: chief fire warden training for duty supervisors and protection supervisors, and a broader base of emergency warden training for frontline staff.
Training shipment, assessment, and practical practice
A well-run PUAFER005 course utilizes your actual discharge diagrams and simulates your building's noisiest reality. If your stairwell tightens at degree three, the scenario needs to make wardens problem-solve that canal. If you have multilingual personnel, practice radio expressions that are clear and simple. Great trainers do not simply show doctrine. They rehearse the exact friction points you will certainly face.
A solid PUAFER006 course sets up competing top priorities and insufficient information. It should consist of a radio discipline exercise where the chief warden has to puncture chatter and appoint channels. It must consist of a choice point where protecting in position is much safer than leaving, such as a smoke occasion on a hot day when leaving to a parking area develops a heat tension risk. It ought to include a handover to emergency situation services within two minutes, because time vanishes when alarms are sounding.
Assessment is practical for both programs. Anticipate scenario-based tasks, brief knowledge checks, and an assessment of your interaction. The best value originates from a debrief that surfaces what went well and what needs job. If your group entrusts a to-do list, like upgrading the professional sign-in procedure or transferring a warden package, you got your cash's worth.
Fire warden training demands and rejuvenate cycles
Standards and WHS legislation do not recommend a solitary nationwide refresh interval, however common technique is to refresh PUAFER005 every 2 years and PUAFER006 every 2 to 3 years, with at the very least one emptying drill annually for each and every building or occupancy. Risky websites may drill quarterly. If your workforce hands over swiftly, roll new beginners into a warden course within their initial few months.
Record your drills, consisting of times to evacuate and head count settlement. If your emptying time slips from 6 minutes to 9 over a year, investigate. Perhaps a door more detailed is sticking, or a new design developed a blind edge. Your chief warden responsibilities include spotting these patterns and bringing them to the Emergency Preparation Board with proposals to fix them.
Gear, radios, and basic upgrades that pay off
Training prepares individuals, but tiny devices choices lower friction. Radios that in fact operate in stairwells are worth the budget plan. Tag your channels simply. Keep warden vests or hats with radios in clearly signed closets on each floor. Put a laminated quick-reference card inside each package with basic motivates: panel area, emergency numbers, assembly areas, and the radio call indications for chief, interactions, and wardens. The most effective chief warden hat colour or design does nothing if the hat sits in a locked cabinet no one can access after hours.
If you operate a school or big facility, think about a committed warden network different from basic operations. During one drill at a health center, a cooking area delivery phone call swamped the radio while the chief fire warden attempted to verify an all-clear. That is not the cooking area's mistake, it is a channel strategy issue.
Common concerns addressed plainly
What colour safety helmet does a chief warden put on? White. Keep it regular and noticeable, whether you make use of a headgear or a vest.
Do I require PUAFER006 to be a deputy chief warden? Yes. Deputies may lead any time. If you are a replacement on paper just, that gap will turn up when the principal is off-site.
Can a tiny office manage with just PUAFER005? Potentially, if your structure management provides a chief warden for the entire facility. Many multi-tenant structures operate this way. Because situation, your tenancy appoints wardens and an organizer who communicates with the building's chief warden. Ask structure administration regarding their expectations.
Does a chief fire warden course cover bomb risks and protection incidents? Qualified PUAFER006 training addresses a variety of emergency situations beyond fires, consisting of bomb threats, questionable plans, and personal dangers. It will certainly not transform you right into safety, but it will give you a framework to lead securely until experts take over.
Are there clinical prerequisites? Both units need you to relocate securely and connect. If you have movement constraints, discuss your duty with your EPC. Many sites make use of buddy systems and assign roles that fit various capabilities.
Pitfalls that training can fix
I have seen wardens search alone since they believed it was effective. It is not. Pair, move methodically, and mark removed locations. I have seen chiefs wait for certainty from the panel while smoke thickened in a basement. Early, conservative choices save time. I have actually seen wardens suggest with an employee that did not intend to leave throughout a drill. The much better strategy: acknowledge, do not intensify, and rise to the chief for a calculated action. Training gives you manuscripts and behaviors that maintain points moving.

Another common issue is missing specialists. Your fire warden requirements in the workplace must consist of a service provider monitoring process that links into discharge head counts. If you rely on the memory of a site manager, you will certainly shed minutes. A straightforward sign-in connected to a warden's clipboard conserves them.
How to range your next training session
Before booking a PUAFER005 course or a PUAFER006 course, walk your website with the trainer or share precise diagrams. Mention known frustrations like secured inter-tenancy doors, locations under repair, and one of the most common after-hours tasks. If your group has actually had near misses, share them. Ask the trainer to tailor scenarios. Off-the-shelf content is a starting factor, not an endpoint.
For combined groups throughout several buildings, think about a split day: early morning PUAFER005 for wardens, mid-day PUAFER006 for leaders, with a mixed drill at the end to bring the assemble. The drill will reveal radio rules problems and handover voids much faster than any type of class slide.
Bottom line: match the training course to the responsibility
If your work is to relocate individuals, check areas, and report up, register in PUAFER005 Operate as part of an emergency control organisation. If your job is to make the telephone call, coordinate, and possess the outcome, enrol in PUAFER006 Lead an emergency control organisation. Plenty of experts hold both, because occupations advance and rosters modification. The chief warden requirements are much heavier, yet the contentment of a clean, tranquil emptying is real. When the fire warden course repays, you will certainly feel it in the quiet confidence of a team that understands the strategy and counts on the person 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.