Hot work: Definition and What It Means for Your Property

Where hot work shows up on Houston properties

Most people picture a fabrication shop. In practice, hot work happens on the properties Price Protection protects every week: a contractor cutting bolts on a rooftop unit at an apartment community, a plumber sweating pipe in a hotel mechanical room, a crew torching down a modified-bitumen roof on a strip center, a millwright grinding a bracket in a warehouse, a steel erector welding on a high-rise frame. Each one throws sparks that can travel well beyond the work and lodge in insulation, dust, cardboard or the void behind a wall, where they can smolder for an hour before flaming.

The permit and the 35-foot rule

A hot work permit is the document that says the work has been looked at before the torch is lit. It records the location, the start and end times, the person authorizing it, the combustibles that were moved or covered, the extinguishers on hand and the fire watch assigned. OSHA’s rule in 29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(iii) sets the trigger for the watch: combustibles within 35 feet of the work, combustibles further away that sparks could still ignite, or wall and floor openings that expose combustibles on the other side. The watch continues at least 30 minutes after the work ends under OSHA, and at least one hour under NFPA 51B, which many permits adopt.

What the fire watch does during hot work

The watch officer stays where the sparks land, not where the welder stands. That can mean the floor below a deck being welded, the far side of a wall being cut or the roof edge where slag drops into landscaping. The officer keeps extinguishing equipment at hand, keeps the area clear of new combustibles and people, and stays on for the post-work period, when most hot work fires actually start. Every round and every observation goes in the fire watch log. The hot work fire watch checklist lists the checks in order.