What is Firewatch?
If you ask most people the question “what’s Firewatch” you will most likely be told that it’s a beautifully crafted adventure video game or the career it’s based on, fire lookout. I am referring to neither of those. The Firewatch I'm talking about is when someone’s job is to watch for anything that could ignite when working around open flames, sparks, or high heat. Hence Firewatch. This is commonly the case in welding, brazing, forging, and other working conditions combining high heat with combustible materials.
As prescribed by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), there are many rules and guidelines related to Firewatch specifically. Here’s when a person needs to be on Firewatch:
Slag (separated waste from melting ores), weld splatter, or sparks might pass through an opening and cause a fire.
Fire-resistant curtains are not being used to prevent ignition of combustible materials on or near decks, bulkheads, partitions, or overheads.
Combustible material is within a 35 ft. (10.7m) radius in any direction to the hot work and cannot be removed, protected with flame-proof covers, or otherwise shielded with metal or fire-resistant guards/curtains.
Hot work is occurring on or near insulation, combustible coatings, or sandwich-type construction that cannot be shielded, cut back, or removed, or in a space within a sandwich type construction that cannot be made inert.
Combustible materials next to the opposite sides of bulkheads, decks, overheads, metal partitions, or sandwich-type construction may be ignited by conduction or radiation.
The hot work is close enough to ignite via radiation or conduction on Insulated pipes, bulkheads, decks, partitions, or overheads; or combustible materials and/or coatings.
The work is close enough to unprotected combustible pipe or cable runs to cause ignition.
A Marine Chemist, a Coast Guard-authorized person, or a shipyard Competent Person, as defined in 29 CFR Part 1915, Subpart B, requires that a fire watch be posted.
Basically, these all boil down to the question “Is there anything nearby that could potentially be ignited, either directly or indirectly?” If the answer is yes, you need someone on Firewatch!
But what does someone on Firewatch do? They assess an area where hot work is happening to find potential combustible materials and monitor the area while the work is happening and for 30 minutes after. If a fire does break out, they put it out with a fire extinguisher. If they can’t put it out, they’re in charge of pulling the alarm.
A prime example of Firewatch is when brazing a metal such as copper. Don’t know what brazing is? It’s when you take a blow torch to two pieces of metal until it gets hot enough to melt on a filler material that welds them together. For reference, copper brazing reaches temperatures as high as 1,550°F (843°C). That’s more than double the ignition temperature of cotton! This means that, for every welder working on miles of hospital piping, there also needs to be someone on Firewatch to make sure they don’t light themselves on fire!
Now you know the basics of Firewatch, but how does that relate to Critical Systems, Inc? Well, an alternative to brazing is orbital welding, which we happen to specialize in. Since you aren’t using an open flame, you don’t need anyone on Firewatch. That means you can double the number of people welding instead of having to ensure nothing blows up.