Fire Watch Safety

An important fire prevention safety precaution is to assign a fire watch person or personnel during and after tasks that involve potential heat or ignition sources, also known as hot work. Fire watch can help workers prevent fires that could lead to property damage, serious injuries, or worse.

 

Roofer Using a Torch to Apply Shingles with Tar

 

A Fire Watch is a person or personnel assigned to monitor the safety of any tasks that could potentially ignite materials and start a fire.

Examples of tasks where a fire watch should be used to guard against fires include:

  • Welding, Cutting and Brazing
  • Grinding
  • Soldering
  • Thawing

A fire watch is especially important and useful in areas where there are combustible materials that could be ignited within a 35-foot radius of hot work

The fire watch should be posted in the area near the work performed and equipped to find and prevent any stray sparks, slag, or heat sources from starting a fire.

The fire watch should also be considered as a critical part of the fire warning system because they will notify workers in the immediate area of a fire and alert emergency fire personnel if a fire starts to get out of control.

Welding

 

The key responsibilities of a fire watch include:

  • Ensure firefighting equipment is readily available and ready for use during fire watch
  • Keep the immediate area free of combustible materials within a 35-foot radius near the hot work, whenever possible
  • Watch for fires and sparks, slag, or heat sources that could lead to fires
  • Communicate with the workers and warn them if tasks are causing an excessive risk of fire
  • Extinguish any small or incipient-stage fires immediately
  • Stay in the area during the work and for at least 30 minutes after the work tasks are finished to monitor all areas where hot work was performed to make sure that there are no smoldering materials
  • Call for emergency fire personnel and begin evacuation procedures immediately, if it becomes necessary 

    Cutting, Producing Sparks

  • Workers designated to fire watch duty must be equipped with fire-extinguishing equipment readily available for the specific types of fires they may encounter. The class of fire extinguisher must match the type of fire especially if combustible metals, electricity, or oils or grease are present in the area of the work. The fire watch should be trained in the use of the fire extinguishing equipment.

    OSHA Standard 1926.352(d) Suitable fire extinguishing equipment shall be immediately

 

 

 

Personnel working as a fire watch should always pay close attention to the work area, exit routes, and any changes or obstacles that could prevent a safe evacuation. The fire watch should be diligent in looking for hidden fire dangers especially in storage locations, crawl spaces, and concealed areas where sparks or slag could have been thrown by the work performed.

Designated fire watchers need to know the location of any manual fire alarm stations and understand the proper steps to take for fire response and sounding alarms.

 

Worker Wearing PPE with Walkie-Talkie

 

 

Fire watch personnel need to be familiar enough with the job site, structure and location, so that if there is a need to report a fire, they are able to give proper directions and information to the fire department. Fire watch personnel should inspect the job site prior to the hot work to make sure that combustible materials are removed, covered, or protected by fire-safe materials.

When hot work like welding and cutting or heating is conducted on or near walls, upper-level floors, ceilings or other building dividers, a fire watch may need to be positioned on the opposite side of that partition because sparks or heat transfer may introduce a fire hazard to this adjacent area.

Multiple fire watch personnel should be designated to provide sufficient coverage if the work site is large, if there are several hot work activities occurring simultaneously, or if there is hot work being performed that requires fire watch on opposite sides of a partition, like a wall.

 

The fire watch should be aware of any emergency switches, electrical shut-off devices and main power cut-offs, as well as the shut-off locations for gas, oil, process water and any other areas that may be hazardous to personnel or add fuel to a potential fire.

The fire watch should only attempt to extinguish a fire if it is within the capacity of their training and the fire-fighting equipment available.

 

 

Welder with Fire Extinguishers Nearby