According to articles 18 and 43 of Legislative Decree 81/2008, the Fire Prevention Officer (Fire Marshall) is the figure who, in the event of any fire related emergency is responsible of preventing incidents by sounding the alarm, initiate evacuation procedures while attending to the public and coworkers in coordination with the Security team and first aid managers. Every business’ owner/employer is responsible by law for appointing and training a suitable member of his taskforce to take on this role.
Among the obligations of the employer, regarding fire safety, as per art. 18 of Decree 81/08, we find:
- Designate a suitable employee to become part of the emergency and Fire Prevention/Fire Marshall team
- Inform workers of the risks present in the workplace and related to fires
- Take the necessary measures to manage emergencies procedures
- Appoint a Fire Security Officer, taking care of his training
The specific tasks of the firefighter are to collaborate in identifying the fire risks present in the workplace, to propose solutions to eliminate or mitigate the risks detected, to constantly check the safety and evacuation routes of the workplace, to deal with the implementation of fire risk warning measures, ensure fire extinguishing, in collaboration with the fire brigade and finally ensure the good functionality of personal fire protection systems.
Given the importance of this figure, the legislature has established specific rules, relating to his training on safety at work. In particular, art. 18 of Legislative Decree. 81/08 and Annex VII of the Ministerial Decree 10/03/1998, specify that the training is structured on the basis of the fire risk present in the company, both from a theoretical and a practical point of view.
The course is scheduled as follow:
- 4 hours of training for low-risk companies
- 8 hours of training for companies with medium risk
- 16 hours of training for high-risk companies
