FIRE SAFETY
The Health and Safety Executive have identified hot works as one of the biggest on site risks, and the Fire Protection Agency have statistics to prove this. They analysed data for a decade between 1999 and 2008 and found that over the ten years, there were over 160 fires that caused at least a quarter of a million pounds worth of damage, which means hot work fires cost the construction industry around £7million per year.
WHAT IS HOT WORK? Hot work is defined as any work that presents a direct risk of causing a fire due to the use of naked flames or the production of sparks. For example: welding using propane and acetylene torches, electric welding, the use of blowlamps or blow torches and the heating of bitumen. It also covers less obvious works, such as the use of angle grinders and cutting discs, where sparks may be created, even though there is no obvious source of heat or flame.
Hot work is covered under a number of different regulatory standards, including the health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005, the Joint Code of Practice (Fire Prevention on Construction Sites), HSG 168, and most recently, CDM2015. Each of these recommends a range of preparations and precautions during hot works, as well as training for both managers and operatives on site.
Before you begin, you need to ask whether the hot work is necessary at all, and whether there are alternative methods available. For example, pipe work can be connected using pressure fittings, avoiding the risk of naked flames for soldering. If no alternative is possible, you should ask whether the hot work needs to be carried out at the location, or whether it can be moved to a safer environment that is more appropriate and represents a lower risk.
RISK ASSESSMENTS AND PERMITS If the work cannot be avoided or relocated, then you must carefully assess the workplace in which it will be carried out, ensuring that there are sufficient fire safety measures in place. This includes checking fire detection equipment, alarm procedures, escape routes, fire fighting equipment and above all, staff fire training. All staff involved in hot work, including managers, must have the correct training and hold hot work permits. You will also need to ensure that at least two appropriate fire extinguishers are available in the area of the hot work and that they are positioned so as to allow for immediate use.
It is essential that the environment is considered during an active working day, as a benign environment on pre-work inspection, may become filled with combustible dust or flammable vapours once work has begun. Hot work should never be undertaken in such environments, and if you are in any doubt, air samples should be taken and analysed to ensure it is safe before work starts.
PREPARATIONS Only when you have completed a comprehensive risk assessment, and acted to correct any shortcomings, can you begin to prepare for the work itself. This involves preparing the area around the work thoroughly to reduce the risk of fire. An area of at least 10m around the hot work
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should be cleared of any flammable materials, including anything brought to the job by the workers, such as jackets and cloth tool bags.
If there are combustible materials that cannot be removed, they should be completely covered with fire blankets. Similarly, any combustible surfaces within the area should be covered and any gaps in the wall or floor sealed to prevent the escape of sparks. If you are working at a height, you may need to extend the 10m area to allow for the spread of sparks over a wider footprint.
“YOU WILL NEED TO ENSURE THAT AT LEAST
TWO APPROPRIATE FIRE EXTINGUISHERS ARE AVAILABLE.”
It is not just the staff who are directly involved in hot work who need to be appropriately trained in fire risk reduction. You also need a further trained staff member who is not directly involved, to provide a continuous fire watch, both during and immediately after the work. This means that the worker can concentrate on the job, knowing that there is a second pair of eyes checking for any source of combustion, and ready to react quickly to extinguish any fire before it spreads. It is important to remember that in larger hot works jobs, fire watchers may need to be positioned on the floors above or below the location as well as at the location itself.
These approved fire watchers should be fully trained in hot works procedures as well as competent in the use of all appropriate fire extinguishers and fully aware of procedures for raising the alarm and evacuating the premises.
TRAINING COURSES Hot work can be costly for the construction industry, with more than one fire a month costing over a quarter of a million pounds. This is why specialist hot works training courses have been created, by companies such as CE Safety, to provide staff with the knowledge they need to accurately assess working environments and reduce the risk of fires.
The training course leads to a hot work permit, often called a hot work passport, which is valid for five years, and proves that workers and managers have the appropriate training for the job. Hot work passports are often requested by clients as part of their health and safety stipulations or as a condition of their insurance, but in reality, they should be standard across the industry as an effective way of preventing costly fires on construction sites.
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