Information For Emergency Building Wardens

The building warden and deputy building warden are appointed to act as the overall controllers for a building in an emergency situation. Emergency floor wardens are appointed to assist the building warden in the orderly evacuation of the building.

The responsibilities of an emergency building warden include:

• establishing the nature of an emergency where possible;
• ordering the evacuation where necessary;
• controlling the evacuation;
• providing an accurate situation report to the attending Emergency Services; and
• recording evacuations using the Building Evacuation Form.

The responsibilities of an emergency floor warden, under the guidance of the emergency building warden include:

• systematically checking all areas that they have been assigned;
• informing staff and students of the requirement to evacuate;
• providing an accurate picture of the state of evacuation to the building warden or attending Emergency Services; and
• recording details of evacuations on the Floor Warden Evaluation Form.

Documents Useful To Emergency Wardens

Documents include:

• Occupational Health and Safety Policy
• Procedures for hazard and incident reporting, investigation and recording
• First Aid procedures
• Workplace inspection program

Resources Available For Emergency Wardens

• Building Evacuation Forms and Floor Warden Evaluation Forms
• Your local OHSE consultant
• Listing of departmental Safety Officers
• Occuptional Health and Safety documents
• Your health & safety representative/deputy health & safety representative  
• Occupational health and safety training courses

Training courses can also be tailored to meet the needs of individual departments/schools or campuses. Occupational Health and Safety can be contacted on (03) 9905-1016 or by email

• A list of building wardens (PDF)

Training Recommended For Emergency Wardens

• Emergency warden training course (2 hours).