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Who Can Perform a Fire Watch?
By Noah Navarro, Retired Firefighter · Updated August 4, 2026 · 4 min read
The order says “approved fire watch.” Two words, and the second one hides the entire question: approved by whom, and what does it take?
Most codes require an approved fire watch, which puts the answer in your AHJ’s hands. Trained employees can qualify where the marshal accepts them and the site frees them of other duties; many jurisdictions and insurers expect dedicated personnel, and where guards are contracted, state security licensing typically applies to the company providing them. The safe sequence: ask the marshal what they will approve before staffing anything.
What "approved" means
Approved, in code language, means acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction. In most jurisdictions the official who required the watch can decide who may stand it, and can set training, staffing, and log expectations as conditions. Insurers add their own bar through the policy or the impairment permit. Nobody gets to self-certify.
The candidate pool
| Who | When they qualify | Gatekeeper |
|---|---|---|
| Trained facility employees | Where the AHJ accepts them and the site frees them of other duties | AHJ / site |
| Contract security guards trained for fire watch | The common answer; many states require security-agency licensing, depending on the service and statute | AHJ / state law |
| Off-duty or detail firefighters | Some jurisdictions prefer or require fire-service personnel for certain watches | Local practice |
| Certified fire guards (e.g. NYC F-01) | Certificate jurisdictions require the credential by law | Local law |
What disqualifies a watch
☐ Competing duties: reception, security screening, cleaning, anything that pulls eyes off the watch
☐ No training on alarms, extinguishers, or the notification chain
☐ No reliable way to call the fire department from every point on the route
☐ Coverage the route math cannot support
☐ Nobody wrote anything down
The licensing layer
Where the watch is a hired service, state private-security licensing often governs the company and its guards, depending on how the state defines the service; some states carve fire watch out, others fold it in. A few jurisdictions run dedicated fire guard credentials, New York City’s F-01 Certificate of Fitness being the best-known, where the person standing the watch generally needs the card, with a narrow initial window for an owner-designated trained person on smaller impairments. Ask two questions before hiring: is the provider licensed here, and does this jurisdiction require a specific certificate?
Employees vs contractors
Cheapest on paper. Real costs: training, documentation, pulled staff, and an AHJ who may say no.
A professional provider arrives licensed where required, trained, insured, and dedicated. Verify all four; that is the point of hiring.
The AHJ approves the arrangement, and the log has to survive review.
Who-can-perform questions
If the AHJ accepts it, he is trained, and he does nothing else while on watch. That last condition is where most in-house plans fail: the site cannot spare him, so the watch quietly becomes a second job.
Many states require the company to hold security licensing, depending on the service and the statute; a few jurisdictions require an individual credential like NYC’s F-01. The fire marshal will know the local answer.
Yes. Approved means approved by them, and rejection mid-impairment is expensive. Confirm before staffing.
Need an approved watch tonight?
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Educational summary, not legal advice. Your AHJ, the adopted code edition, and your insurer govern. NFPA® standards are copyrighted publications of the National Fire Protection Association. The Fast Fire Watch Company is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NFPA, the ICC, or OSHA.
Last updated: August 2026