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If you're preparing for a fire marshal or fire warden assessment, the practice questions below will give you a sense of the kind of material a typical UK course covers. The questions are pitched at the level of accredited workplace fire safety training — the same ground covered in IFE, RoSPA and IOSH-recognised courses.
Take the quiz, check your answers, and use the explanations to fill in any gaps. None of this replaces actual training, but it's a useful self-check before booking a course or going into a refresher.
What the real assessment looks like
Most accredited fire marshal training assessments follow a similar pattern. The Level 2 Award in the Principles of Fire Safety, which several training providers use as the underlying qualification, runs to twenty multiple-choice questions with a forty-five-minute time limit and a pass mark of twelve out of twenty (sixty per cent). No external aids are allowed.
In-person courses often combine the written assessment with continuous trainer observation throughout the session, particularly during practical extinguisher use. Online courses usually rely entirely on the multiple-choice element, sometimes split into shorter section-by-section quizzes rather than one final test.
If the multiple-choice format puts you off, it's worth knowing that the questions are pitched to test understanding, not memorisation. You're not asked to recall the exact wording of articles in the Fire Safety Order; you're asked whether you'd do the right thing in a realistic scenario. The questions below are written in the same spirit.
Practice quiz: 15 questions
1. The three elements that must be present for a fire to start are heat, fuel and:
- A) Carbon dioxide
- B) Oxygen
- C) Nitrogen
- D) Smoke
Answer: B. The fire triangle is heat, fuel, oxygen. Removing any one of the three is how every method of extinguishing a fire works — cooling removes heat, smothering removes oxygen, starving removes fuel.
2. What does the acronym PASS stand for when using a fire extinguisher?
- A) Pull, Aim, Spray, Stop
- B) Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep
- C) Press, Aim, Squeeze, Spray
- D) Pull, Approach, Squeeze, Sweep
Answer: B. Pull the pin, Aim at the base of the fire, Squeeze the handle, Sweep side to side. Aim at the base, not the flames — the fuel is what's burning.
3. Under UK fire safety law, who carries the legal duty for fire safety in a workplace?
- A) The fire marshal
- B) The most senior employee on site
- C) The "responsible person", usually the employer
- D) The fire and rescue service
Answer: C. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 places the legal duty on the "responsible person", typically the employer or building owner. The responsible person can delegate practical work to fire marshals but cannot delegate the legal accountability.
4. A fire marshal arrives at a small fire in a wastepaper bin. What is the priority?
- A) Tackle the fire immediately with the nearest extinguisher
- B) Raise the alarm, then tackle the fire only if it can be done safely and they're trained to do so
- C) Evacuate the area without attempting to do anything else
- D) Call the fire and rescue service first, before anything else
Answer: B. Raising the alarm comes first — both to alert other occupants and to make sure the fire and rescue service is on the way regardless of what happens next. Tackling the fire is only an option if it's small, the marshal is trained, and it's clearly safe to attempt.
5. Which class of fire involves cooking oils and fats?
- A) Class A
- B) Class B
- C) Class D
- D) Class F
Answer: D. Class F covers cooking oils. The right extinguisher is a wet chemical type. Water and foam are unsafe on burning oil — they can cause violent reignition.
6. How often should fire alarms be tested in most workplaces?
- A) Daily
- B) Weekly
- C) Monthly
- D) Annually
Answer: B. Weekly testing is the standard, with the call point used rotated each week so all are tested over time. The test is logged.
7. During an evacuation, you find a colleague using a lift to leave the building. What should you do?
- A) Let them — lifts evacuate people faster
- B) Direct them to the stairs immediately, unless the lift is specifically designated as an evacuation lift
- C) Wait for them on the next floor
- D) Tell them off afterwards
Answer: B. Standard lifts must not be used during a fire evacuation. They can be cut off by power failure, opened on the fire floor, or fail in unpredictable ways. Some buildings have specifically designated evacuation lifts (rare, with their own protocols) — but a normal lift is never an evacuation route.
8. What does PEEP stand for?
- A) Personal Evacuation Emergency Plan
- B) Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan
- C) Premises Emergency Evacuation Procedure
- D) Public Evacuation Emergency Procedure
Answer: B. A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan is a tailored evacuation procedure for someone who can't follow the standard route — typically due to mobility impairment, sensory impairment, or temporary injury. Fire marshals execute PEEPs but don't write them.
9. A fire warden carrying out a sweep finds a colleague in a meeting room who refuses to leave because they're "in the middle of a call". What's the right response?
- A) Leave them and continue the sweep
- B) Insist firmly that they evacuate immediately, by law and for their own safety
- C) Let them finish the call quickly
- D) Stay with them until they're ready
Answer: B. The fire marshal's job is to clear their assigned area. Insisting firmly is the right approach — calmly but with authority. Lingering with someone who's refusing to leave puts both of you at risk and means other occupants in the area aren't getting cleared.
10. A workplace's fire risk assessment is the duty of:
- A) The fire marshal
- B) The fire and rescue service
- C) The responsible person (or someone competent appointed by them)
- D) An external consultant only
Answer: C. The responsible person under the Fire Safety Order must ensure a fire risk assessment is carried out. They can do it themselves if competent, appoint someone competent internally, or appoint an external assessor. Fire marshals can support the assessment with on-the-ground observations but aren't, by virtue of their role, qualified to carry out the formal assessment.
11. The minimum number of fire marshals you need is determined by:
- A) A fixed legal ratio set by the Fire Safety Order
- B) The fire risk assessment, taking into account workplace size, layout, occupancy and risk level
- C) A flat one marshal per ten employees
- D) Whatever the insurance company specifies
Answer: B. There's no fixed legal ratio in UK law. The fire risk assessment determines the appropriate number. Common rule-of-thumb ratios used by professionals are 1:50 for low risk, 1:20 for medium, 1:15 for high — but these are starting heuristics, not law.
12. After arriving at the assembly point during an evacuation, the most important task is:
- A) Making sure nobody is on their phone
- B) Carrying out a roll call to confirm everyone is accounted for
- C) Counting the number of cars in the car park
- D) Waiting for the fire and rescue service before doing anything
Answer: B. The roll call is the point of having an assembly procedure. The marshal uses whatever record the workplace relies on — signing-in book, in/out board, employee list — and reports any missing people to the fire and rescue service when they arrive.
13. A fire warden discovers their sweep route is blocked by smoke. What should they do?
- A) Push through the smoke quickly
- B) Stop the sweep, leave the area by the nearest safe exit, and report the blockage to the senior warden or fire service
- C) Wait for the smoke to clear before continuing
- D) Open windows to ventilate the route
Answer: B. The sweep stops at the point it becomes unsafe. The marshal exits via the nearest safe route and reports what they saw. Going deeper into smoke is a quick way to become a casualty rather than a rescuer.
14. The minimum fire marshal training certificate validity in most accredited courses is:
- A) One year
- B) Two years
- C) Three years
- D) Five years
Answer: C. Three years is the standard validity for accredited fire marshal certificates in the UK. Higher-risk workplaces (care homes, hospitals, warehouses with flammable storage) often refresh annually as a matter of policy, but the standard certificate runs three years.
15. The correct UK colour conventions for fire safety signs include:
- A) Red rectangles for fire equipment, green for safe condition (exits, assembly points)
- B) Yellow rectangles for fire equipment, blue for safe condition
- C) Green rectangles for fire equipment, red for safe condition
- D) Blue rectangles for fire equipment, yellow for safe condition
Answer: A. Under BS 5499 and the harmonised BS EN ISO 7010 standard, fire equipment signs are red rectangles (extinguisher locations, alarm call points). Safe condition signs — fire exits, assembly points, refuge areas — are green rectangles.
Where to take genuine accredited training
Self-testing has its limits. To take the role properly, you need an accredited course that includes legal context, evacuation procedure, sweep technique, equipment use and assessment.
Our Fire Warden Training course is the practical next step. £18 per learner, RoSPA approved and CPD accredited, 60 to 90 minutes online, instant certificate on passing, and free unlimited retakes if you don't pass the assessment first time. Group bookings get bulk discounts from 10 delegates upwards. Suitable for individuals booking themselves on or for whole workplace teams training together.
If you want more depth on any of the topics covered in the questions above:
- Fire marshal responsibilities — full duties breakdown
- How long does a fire marshal certificate last — refresher timing
- Fire marshal checklist — daily, weekly and emergency procedure
- Fire marshal signs and posters — BS 5499 and BS EN ISO 7010 explained
