Cutting and welding processes using electric arcs or oxy-fuel gas flames are necessary for our industrial world. Too often, however, the persons who use, hire, or supervise the use of the processes do not fully appreciate that their improper use can result in the loss of life and property by fire and explosion. Approximately 6 percent of fires in industrial properties have been caused by cutting and welding, primarily with portable equipment in areas not specifically designed or approved for such work. Cutting and welding operations produce thousands of ignition sources in the form of sparks and hot slag. The electric arc, the oxy-fuel gas flame, and the hot work pieces are inherent ignition sources. Sparks have caused most industrial fires in which cutting and welding are a factor. These globules of molten metal have scattered as far as 35 feet, setting fire to all kinds of combustible materials. They have also fallen through cracks, pipe holes, or other small openings in floors and partitions, starting fires that have reached serious proportions before being noticed.
Electric arcs or oxy-fuel gas flames, in themselves, have rarely caused fire except where they have overheated combustibles in the vicinity of the work or where they have been used on containers that had not been purged of flammable materials. In the latter case, an explosion generally resulted. The heat of the metal being welded or cut has caused fires where the hot pieces were permitted to rest or fall upon combustible materials. Fires and explosions have also been caused where this heat was transmitted, as in the case of a container, through the metal to a flammable atmosphere or to combustibles within the container.
Anything which is combustible or flammable is susceptible to ignition by the cutting and welding. The most common materials quickly to become involved in fire are combustible building construction such as floors, partitions, and roofs; combustible contents such as wood, paper, textiles, chemicals, and flammable liquids and gases and combustible ground cover such as grass and brush.
Preventing cutting and welding fires can best be achieved by separating the combustibles from ignition sources or by shielding the combustibles.
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