This page has been developed using information from the Factory Mutual Insurance Company. A link below has been provided so that you may visit their site (FM Global) and gather as much useful info as needed.
SAFTENG’s Welding Safety Page has over 50 informative website’s to help improve your hot work safety
My FAVORITE Hot Work Safety sites :
Factory Mutual (just use the search engine and search for “hotwork”)
Welding, Cutting, Brazing- OSHA’s Technical Page
Arc Welding and Cutting – NIOSH Summary
What is hot work and why should I be concerned?
Hot work is any task related to maintenance chores or renovations where flames, sparks or heat are produced and a subsequent conflagration could occur. The sparks and molten globules thrown off by hot work are uncontrolled multiple ignition sources that can fly and roll a considerable distance and potentially start a fire if they fall on combustible materials. Often the combustible material that may sit close to a hot work site may not be readily visible.
Contrary to the general perception, hot work is not just cutting and welding. It includes other operations which produce heat including brazing, grinding, sawing, soldering, thawing frozen pipe, applying roof covering or sealing plastic shrink-wrap by torch. Hot work is common to all industries and organizations.
Most hot work accidents are due to human factors and those directly responsible could be a facility’s employees or the fault could lie with a contractor. FM Global reports that over the past five years there were 267 fires and explosions caused by hot work at insured locations with a gross loss total of over US$300 million.
Contractors and Hot Work
Over the last five years, contractors have accounted for 66.5 percent of all hot work losses at FM Global insured properties, including some that have excellent loss prevention programs in place. This represents a nine-percent increase over the previous five-year period. There are several reasons for this increase. The two most important — more services are being outsourced and contractors are not being held accountable for their actions while on your property.
Hot work…do your contractors understand your hot work policy?
Facts from Factory Mutual fact sheet “Learning from your losses”. To see this fact sheet in it entirety (pdf file) go to: http://www.affiliatedfm.com/pdfs/lol_hotwork.pdf
Tips to reduce the number of hot work losses
brought to you by Factory Mutual
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Establish a written chain of command and set of policies and procedures which outline responsibility for hot work tasks. Create a sign off process.
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Seek alternatives: since the dangers outlined above are fairly obvious, companies should seek alternatives to hot work whenever and wherever possible. For example, consider cutting with hand or electric saws or pipe cutters rather than torches. Consider using mechanical means of joining nuts and bolts, screwed fittings or couplings. Consider hand filing instead of grinding; consider installing threaded pipe instead of welded or soldered pipe.
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Avoid doing any hot work in areas housing hazardous processes involving flammable liquids, gases and dusts that cannot be shut off or moved away. Avoid also in areas where concentrations of flammable vapors, gases or dusts cannot be eliminated.
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Be careful of walls, ceilings or floors having combustible facings or combustible insulation or equipment that contains combustible linings. Also avoid doing any hot work around metal piping and ducts that pass through combustible construction to which they will conduct heat.
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Be willing to train employees and contractors in hazards and proper execution of hot work in your plant.
— Monitor and train your outside contractors in the risks inherent in your plant. Make sure they have insurance coverage for hot work and do not waive subrogation rights.
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Be willing to move things around to create a safer environment for hot work, setting up fire retardant tarpaulins, wet down a floor, remove oily deposits, etc.
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Be sure to obtain a permit when required. Once you have a permit be sure it is prominently displayed at the work site and the conditions of the permit are followed to the letter.
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Be sure your automatic sprinkler protection is in place and working before hot work begins in an area of the plant.
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Be sure there are fully functioning portable extinguishers available in the hot work area along with a sprinkler system.
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When conducting hot work, keep 35 feet clear of combustibles in all directions. Shield combustible flooring with wet sand, fire retardant tarpaulins or sheet metal. Clean the area of oily deposits and trash. Cover any storage or other combustibles that cannot be moved away. Block off any duct openings where sparks can spread.
Maintain a fire watch
The fire watch is an individual appointed to play an important role in hot work: to prevent fire and to respond to fire if and when it occurs. The fire watch must stay near the person doing the hot work making sure all the procedures are followed. After the work has ended, the fire watch should continue to check the area for a period of no less than three hours.
If these precautions are observed, you stand a greater chance of completing hot work successfully with little or no disruption to the work around you. If you have any questions, or for more information contact [email protected].