Fire Watch & Fire Safety
On-Demand CourseCourse Overview
The Security Guard's Role in Fire Safety & Fire Watch — Online Continuing Education Earn security guard continuing education credit with this three-module online fire safety and fire watch training course from Security Compliance Academy. Built on OSHA and NFPA 51B guidance, the course covers fire safety fundamentals, fire watch duties, hot-work permits, fire-aware patrol, evacuation management, and incident reporting — the skills guards need for license renewal and for qualifying for fire watch posts. The self-paced course includes interactive scenarios, a downloadable Fire Watch Log template, a final assessment, and a Certificate of Completion for employer and compliance records. Enroll today and complete your security guard CE online.
What's Included
- • 2 hours of comprehensive training
- • Professional certification upon completion
- • Access to course materials
Learning Objectives
- • By the end of this security guard fire safety and fire watch training course, you will be able to:
- • Module 1 — The Security Officer's Role & Fire Safety Fundamentals
- • Describe the five core functions of a security guard — deter, observe, report, communicate, and respond — and explain how each one applies directly to fire safety on post
- • Explain the security guard's duties, the limits of a guard's authority, and the correct observation, reporting, and communication actions for fire hazards and emergencies
- • Explain how a fire starts, how it is controlled, how it spreads, and how to safely match an extinguishing agent to each class of fire
- • Perform the correct order of the security officer's fire response — detect, alarm and notify, evacuate, contain, attempt only if safe, and support responders — within the limits of the guard's role
- • Module 2 — The Security Guard on Fire Watch
- • Explain what a fire watch is, state its primary purpose — detect, notify, and support evacuation — and describe it as a security post governed by post orders and authority limits
- • Recognize the conditions that require a fire watch, including hot work, impaired fire protection systems, and high-risk occupancies, and identify when a required watch is missing
- • Explain when a fire watch is initiated, maintained, and terminated — including why the post-work monitoring period exists and why ending a watch early is dangerous Perform the fire watch duties required before, during, and after the watch, and complete a fire watch log that meets documentation requirements
- • Module 3 — Applied Skills: Permits, Patrol, Fire Behavior & Evacuation
- • Read and verify a hot-work permit, identify the four ways a permit fails, and confirm a hot-work area has been properly cleared and protected before work begins
- • Recognize early fire and smoke behavior, explain why doors are felt before opening and kept closed, describe flashover, and actively detect a hidden smolder during a post-work watch
- • Deliver a clear, complete emergency radio transmission under stress — location first, brief, factual, and confirmed received
- • Run a fire-aware patrol, direct and assist building occupants during an evacuation — including people who cannot self-evacuate — de-escalate at the assembly point, and write a defensible incident report
Course Content
Module 1 — The Security Officer's Role & Fire Safety Fundamentals.
- • The course begins with the foundation every assignment is built on: your five core functions applied to fire. You'll learn how fire starts, spreads, and is controlled, how to match the right extinguisher to each class of fire, how to recognize the common fire hazards on patrol, and the life-safety priority order to follow when a fire is discovered — including the four conditions that must all be true before you ever attempt to extinguish a small fire.
Module 2 — The Security Guard on Fire Watch.
- • Next, the course trains the fire watch as a defined security post. You'll learn when a fire watch is required, why the post-work monitoring period exists, the sole-duty rule, and how to keep a fire watch log that holds up to inspection by fire authorities.
Module 3 — Applied Skills: Permits, Patrol, Fire Behavior & Evacuation
- • The final module turns duties into skill: hot-work permits, clearing and protecting the work area, reading smoke and understanding flashover, hunting the hidden smolder, radio communication under stress, fire-aware patrol technique, evacuation management, assembly-point de-escalation, and incident report writing that holds up in front of a supervisor, an insurer, or a court.
Your Instructor
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I receive a Training Certificate?
Yes, a Certificate of Completion suitable for employer records, compliance documentation, and training verification.
What is a fire watch?
A fire watch is a procedure for detecting fire by one or more designated persons, put in place when something has temporarily raised the fire risk above its normal level — most commonly, hot work such as welding and cutting, or an impaired sprinkler or alarm system. The primary purpose of a fire watch is to detect fire, notify occupants and the fire department, and support evacuation of the protected area. Firefighting is not the primary purpose of a fire watch.
When is a fire watch required?
A fire watch is typically required during and after hot work (welding, cutting, grinding, brazing, and soldering), whenever a fire protection system such as a sprinkler or fire alarm is impaired or out of service, and in certain occupancies — including buildings where people are sleeping, occupants cannot self-evacuate, or large numbers of people gather. The requirement is set by fire code, the hot-work permit, client policy, or the fire marshal.
Do security guards need fire watch training?
Many clients, jurisdictions, and hot-work programs require documented fire watch training before a guard may be assigned to a fire watch post. Completing this course gives you that documentation, plus the practical skills to perform the assignment—verifying permits, clearing combustibles, monitoring for delayed ignition, and maintaining a compliant fire watch log.
What do I receive when I complete the course?
After passing the final assessment with a score of 80% or higher, you receive a downloadable Certificate of Completion suitable for employer records, compliance documentation, and training verification — plus the Fire Watch Log template included with the course.
Can a security guard fight a fire?
A security guard's primary fire functions are to detect, notify, and support evacuation — firefighting is not a guard's job. A guard may attempt to extinguish a small fire only when all four conditions are true at once: the fire is small and contained, the guard has the correct extinguisher, a clear exit is behind them, and they are trained in its use. If any condition is missing, the correct action is to evacuate and notify. This course teaches that decision-making in depth.