ā Ā¶ Introduction to Hot Work Failures
Welcome back everybody . This week we're talking about hot work and this is not oh , check your extinguishers hot work training . This is gonna be the top failures that could contribute to burning your location down that you probably wanna avoid .
Hi , welcome back . Welcome back here we are Allen's Safety YouTube channel .
topic worker safety joe jen and just again want to reach out and say hey guys , thanks , thanks for being part of our community . It's been a real ride . So thank you for sticking with us in the early years and thanks for still still believing in us and watching now .
So these are top failures of hot work . Uh , why did we pick this one ? We have been to locations literally a few weeks later watched the building burn down because of somebody's hot work , and it makes it but it was sad and then so we paid attention over the years . So this is not from last year .
This like years of stuff that we're like these are accumulation of , of many things that we feel are contributing factors , that you know it's preventable
ā Ā¶ Confused Fire Watch Positioning
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So the very first one is one of the events we had was the contractor and or the employee doing firewatch . Doesn't really know where they need to be for the 30 minutes where they're standing . Is it . Do I stand here ? Do I stand over there ? Because we'll sign them to be the 30 minute firewatch or the 60 minute firewatch , but what does that really mean ?
Well , just think about the logistics of this real quick in your mind . Most firewatch training is either done in a classroom setting , maybe a little bit done outside in terms of like if you actually shoot off an extinguisher .
otherwise it may be a virtual extinguisher situation and I don't know at what point we're ever like hey , and here correct next to this post I had one a few months ago that had to be 50 feet where they were doing the hot work first was standing there because the other hot work was there well , how many months are we really talking ?
how ? Many well did we do . And we may have a saturday where we're just going spot to spot to spot to spot For hours .
For hours .
So how many fire watches is that ? That's correct ? Do they move with the person or do they stay with ?
the person and do the 30 minutes .
And you know what the hot work programs don't say , don't say they're not clear . You got to tell the person where to stand , when , how long to stand there , that is what we're missing in the program and that is what we're missing in the training for the person doing the welding , and that's what we're missing just overall in the fire watch training .
We're not telling them the technical details on what to do and where to go . It goes beyond just here's how you use an extinguisher .
Absolutely . Another one is what is the actual hot
ā Ā¶ Defining Hot Work Areas
work area ? Where is it ? Because I've seen fire watches here the hot work be way up there or way over there .
I'm like yeah , they're welding like in the ceiling and the person's on the ground .
That makes no sense . That makes no sense gun ?
you can't , you can't even . That's not even really line aside . You're just standing here and hoping the welder's like , hey , it's on fire , can you ?
help , yeah , and then , as the person performing the hot work , you got to look at what they're doing so say they're in a confined space and they're doing hot work .
I was just going to say I'm thinking confined space .
Do you really want the fire watch jumping in , or are you going to have a different policy for that ?
And I think that the intent of the permit is supposed to kind of flush out some of those things . They're not Right , the permits aren't capturing it . That's usually the method that we use to do kind of a pre-job hazard assessment . It's not catching the stuff .
All right , and another one is okay , so I've got to fill out this permit
ā Ā¶ Permit Duration and Distance Issues
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I'm with you .
And this project is going to take eight hours . Yes , so I'm going to give you this permit from my desk .
Yes , so you're the supervisor .
So somehow that permit just became an eight hour document that lives on its own .
Well , that's what you did yesterday . We're going to continue the project today . Here's the permit for today .
And you're like but how did you evaluate the 30 foot and 50 foot and extinguishers ?
There's no way again , it's where do they need to stand ? How ?
Many , should there be that permit all kind of I think under the assumption for whatever reason I don't know why I was when I first got into safety before I really knew what was going on that there's only like one fire watch , like one fire watch per person welding , like it's someone welding and then there's a fire watch with them , it's's two people .
And that's not true . That's not true necessarily .
Another one you have is footage . So I'm going to be 200 feet away , so it's a 30 minute fire watch for 200 feet , or is it 30 minute fire watch for this five feet where we did the first one ?
Because what happens is if I travel , like you you talked about earlier , with the footage of the 200 feet , because I'm making sure they don't go in the wrong area , I'm not controlling the other part now pins , you know , think hog barns .
Yeah , they are drops below systems and I'm I'm installing new equipment or you know already not conveyors or something I just really think if you had to go in and you were going to overhaul and repair stuff , it could be huge distance that that one welder can travel because they're not going to stay there with their first weld . That doesn't make any sense .
So they're covering a massive area , you just so . How many permits do you need ?
Because that's what you got to be asking , then you're saying that you've got to also have a 35 foot clearance around each one of those welds and theoretically , you're giving me your permit from your office and I'm walking out there and it's pre-signed , which obviously we all know is wrong . We're not advocating .
Point of it is . It's a risk , and we've seen it . We've seen that happen .
And so just how are you making sure the final weld , that's 200 foot away , still meets the intent of the permit , which is 35 foot clear ? All these things are in place . We did the hazard analysis . You know we're good about doing that process and filling out the permit for the first weld , but once you start getting multiple welds , all that stuff falls off .
And then the other one that's always weird to me is we have a 10 minute break or we're going home in 10 minutes , so time time is interesting how the fire watch can actually change
ā Ā¶ Time and Personnel Challenges
times . So we have a 30 minute hour watch , but we have a 10 minute break .
Then 10 minutes you're leaving , but or we like we assign multiple fire watches and so they step in and take your place , but they weren't on the permit , so we're going to add them real quick .
Hey can you come over here . Yeah , we're leaving today . We're a contractor . Can the host now manage it Okay ?
Can they take over it ?
was your hot work , it was your people , it was your everything , your liability .
Yeah , the plant didn't or the location didn't sign off on the permit . It's a contractor's supervisor that signed off . So why am I now adding my people to be the fire watch and you're headed out , so that you don't charge me overtime or double ? Time or whatever . It gets really weird . Part of it is really planning .
Right , that's the final one .
ā Ā¶ Planning Solutions and Final Thoughts
The final was to capture all of this , our solution is you got to plan it , you got to look at what you're really doing .
Jobs go and don't do this that morning it's too late right we have a bunch of videos on project day and managing and hot work and hot work and and making sure that things go smoothly come project day and working with contractors .
This is something that , if you know what's coming , try and start working on this during the week so that we have the right number of people allocated and the right set of eyes . It's not just how many people look at something , but it's the right folks that really understand what's going on , getting some eyes on it to mitigate those hazards .
Jen said in the hot work episode a few weeks ago no , all the piece of paper really is is who's liable at the end of the day . Yeah , oh , if it's about liability , then have a .
Yeah , let's start playing , especially if it's again multi employer work sites . For sure , that's our , that's our top failures of hot work . So think about that , see if any of those apply to you and let us know in the comments if you think we missed it .
These are opinions . These are opinions .
Yeah , these are our opinions , so this is just . Obviously I can't capture them all . This is 10 minutes because we're trying to make these bite-sized lessons for you guys too . We know you don't have all day , so we try to just hit the top ones . If there's some that were biggies that we missed , let us know in the comments .
Otherwise , if you want us to do a side evaluation uh , some kind of behavior-based safety audit evaluation I don't love the word safety audit , that's kind of what it is , but it's not um , you can reach out Allen dash , safetycom If you want to have some in-person services , projects , procedures , contractor safety stuff , any of those things .
We would love to travel to your location .
We would love to do some in-person stuff with you guys . Otherwise , if in-person training , audits , project stuff isn't in the budget this year , you can head over to allensafetycoachingcom . That's a great in-between and you also get free email coaching with us . Yeah , so you can email Joe and I for free .
That's part of that coaching membership , so you kind of get some some support Also just watch every one of the videos we currently have out .
Yeah , you could do that . Just sit down for a Saturday afternoon and be like I think I'll watch these .
Yeah , absolutely , and we know some folks . Thank you .
All right , have a good day .
Have a great week
ā Ā¶ Service Offerings and Closing
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