Fire Watch and Hole Watch Duties

The fire watch and hole watch experts work in the areas where grinding, welding, cutting, and another similar kind of tasks are performed. The preferred locations for their appointment are where minor fire outbreaks are expected.

They stay active in the area where cutting or welding is performed within 35 feet of some combustible materials. They keep an eye on the sparks that could otherwise ignite the materials around. These professionals are responsible for ensuring the safety of workers handling different activities in the area.

Primary fire and hole watcher duties:

The main duty of personnel on both these profiles is to sound an alarm to let people know about the emergency. Although the fire watch service providers keep on monitoring the sparks generated from the burner or welder while cutting or welding metal, the prime duty of these professionals is to raise an alarm so that firefighters can take control of the situation. The hole watchers are generally not allowed to enter confined space to perform rescue operations, they just give the alarm to the trained rescue professionals.

Here we have listed a few details about the prime roles played by the fire watch and hole watch professionals:

Informed Investigation:

Those who are dedicated to carrying out hole watch and fire watch duties usually have a better understanding of fire chemistry. They are well aware of how different elements react in association with other materials. As per the regulations developed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, these professionals are responsible for ensuring that a specific area is safe to execute a specific type of fire-related operation. They also collect all the details about safety hazards associated with a particular work area.

Hazard elimination:

The hole and fire watchers protect the potential entry and essential operation hazards while evaluating the specific work area.  In case if the spot has not obtained the required permit for executing certain operations, they conduct their personal investigation procedures to ensure that premises stay safe. These professionals are also trained to recognize the signs of fire, collapse, or explosion hazards.

Constant communication:

Hole watchers are known for maintaining open lines of communication with confined space workers. Watchers take responsibility to alert the workers in the area whenever it is essential to evacuate the premises fast. In case of emergencies, the hole watchers alert the rescue teams instead of entering the emergency areas themselves. The fire watchers raise the alarms immediately to warn firefighters in case of an emergency breakout.

Equipment operation:

Fire watcher’s responsibilities include handling various engineering controls that are otherwise designed to reduce or eliminate the potential for fires, collapse, and explosions. They take appropriate measures to monitor the gas levels in the surrounding area so that threats to the workers can be avoided. They also recalibrate the monitoring instruments from time to time.

Without any doubt, fire and hole watchers perform an important duty of saving workers from any accident in the fire-prone areas.