Fire Watch or Hot Work Training: Which One?
Four eTraining courses cover the same welding and cutting work from different angles. What the person does on site decides which one they need.
- Fire Watch - General Industry and Construction. You are on it. One to two hours for the person posted to watch: when a watch is required, what the watcher does while the work runs, and how long they stay after it stops.
- Hot Work Training. Two hours for the people holding the torch, across 29 CFR 1910.251 to 1910.255. Wider than this course: permits, ventilation, gas cylinders and PPE as well as fire watch duties. View the Hot Work Training
- Welding, Cutting and Brazing Safety. Thirty minutes on the welding work itself, referenced to 29 CFR 1910 Subpart Q and NFPA 51B. The short refresher for a crew that already knows the job. View the Welding, Cutting and Brazing Safety
- OSHA Emergency Action Plans. Thirty minutes on 29 CFR 1910.38(a), the plan a fire watch follows once the alarm sounds. For the person writing that plan rather than the person watching. View the OSHA Emergency Action Plans
One person watches, the others work. Buy this course for whoever is posted on the watch, and the hot work course for the crew doing the cutting.
What Does OSHA Require a Fire Watch to Be Trained In?
One sentence puts the duty in place. 29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(B) says fire watchers shall have fire extinguishing equipment readily available and be trained in its use.
- Trained in the equipment, not just handed it. The standard pairs the extinguisher with the training in the same sentence. Putting a worker next to a fire extinguisher they have never used does not meet it.
- Posted whenever the work is near what burns. 29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(A) calls for a fire watch where more than a minor fire might develop, including combustibles within 35 feet and wall or floor openings that expose combustibles next door.
- Kept there after the torch goes off. The same paragraph holds the fire watch for at least a half hour after the welding or cutting ends. That window is when slag and heated metal are still capable of starting something.
- Construction says it differently. 29 CFR 1926.352(e) asks for personnel to guard against fire during the work and for a sufficient period after it, instructed on the anticipated fire hazards and how the firefighting equipment is used. No fixed half hour.
Two standards, one job. The course teaches both because the product is sold for both.
Helpful and understanding
First time doing a fine training, ? learned alot of information