Many employers are very concerned with construction site fire safety. They have had many injuries that could have been prevented if they would have had a fire safety program. Fire safety is the precautions that are taken in order to reduce injury, property damage, and even death.
In recent years, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) has been given the power of inspecting not only construction sites, but also all work sites, since its beginning in 1970. They can issue citations to a company for not providing a safe work place. These inspections are never given an advance notice, and OSHA can come onto a work site any time they want to.
A fire prevention code is a set of rules that describes in detail how to prevent fires from the misuse of dangerous material. Certain chemicals should be placed in a separate location free from anything that may catch fire from another source. Fire prevention dictates where fire extinguishers should be placed as well as sprinkler systems and smoke detectors. Keeping materials picked up that may be a potential fire hazard. It also has specific codes for electrical fire hazards as well as fuel and other types of fires.
A good fire safety program should be done in order to keep the employees up-to-date about fire safety. OSHA distributes certified OSHA approved certificates for employees that have attended a pre-approved amount of fire safety classes.
Fire protection is also enforced by the AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) whose job is to make sure that all fire codes are met and enforced at all times. They classify fires using a jurisdiction operating system, which is to use letter codes for different types of fires. Many of these classes vary from country to country, such as the United States, Australia, and Europe.
Fires have 5 specific classes from A to F, however, in Australia and Europeans Class E and F are considered quite different. In Australia a Class F fire, which is where high oil temperatures exceeds the temperature of other flammable liquids which cause extinguishing agents ineffective, is considered a Class K fire in the United States. Also, a Class E fire in Australia, which involves electrical fires, is a Class C fire in the United States, and in Europe, it is no longer classed.
Any deviations from the original fire plan should be made known to not only to OSHA but AHJ as well, because the fire safety hazard has been increased. Anything that is unsafe, such as a sprinkler system or fire alarm that does not operate properly can cause a fire to spread rapidly.
Structural fire protection involves one of three means, Passive, Active, and Education. Passive fire protection is used along with fire resistant materials, such as wall and floor materials that limit the spread of fires. Active fire protection is using automatic detection devises and suppression of fires, such as fire alarms and sprinkler systems. Education of employees is to ensure that everyone knows the rules, the weakness and the strengths that a fire could have, and they should have an emergency designed fire safety plan which should be followed in case of a fire.
It is vital for everyone to realize that construction site fire safety is a system that relies on all of its components as well as everyone's participation.
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