Hot Work Program

For any hot work location that is not a designated hot work area, a completed and signed hot work permit must be posted for the job.  See below for a copy of the hot work permit. The permit must be issued by a permit authorizing individual (PAI). For jobs that occur in both indoor and outdoor locations, a separate permit for each location must be issued. One permit may be used for the job if there are no changes to the hazard(s) or personnel.

Before a hot work permit is issued, the following safe work conditions must be verified by a PAI: (California Fire Code 3504.3)

1. Area inspection is required on the day of the hot work and before conducting any hot work activities.
2. The hot work equipment must be in safe operating condition and good repair.
3. Fully charged and operable fire extinguishers appropriate for the type of possible fire must be immediately available at the work area.
4. All combustible materials within a 35 foot radius from the hot work must be relocated. If relocation is impractical, the materials must be protected by an NRTL-approved welding curtain, welding blanket, welding pad, or equivalent barrier.
   1. To prevent the sparks from passing underneath covers, they must be tight against the floor and held in place from movement. Where covers overlap to cover a pile of combustible material, they must be tightly clipped together.
5. The floor must be swept clean for a radius of 35 feet from the hot work in areas where combustible materials such as paper, wood shavings, textile fibers, or rubber are on the floor.
6. Combustible floors must be kept wet, covered with damp sand, or protected by an NRTL-approved welding blanket, welding pad, or equivalent barrier.
   1. Where floors have been wet down, operators must be electrically-isolated from equipment and protected from possible shock.
7. Openings or cracks in walls, floors, or ducts within 35 feet of the site must be covered or sealed with approved fire-rated or non-combustible material to prevent the passage of sparks to adjacent areas.
8. Ducts and conveyor systems that might carry sparks to distant combustible materials must be shielded or, preferably, shut down.
9. If hot work is done near walls, partitions, ceilings, or roofs of combustible construction, they must be protected by an approved welding curtain, welding blanket, welding pad, or equivalent.
10. If hot work is done on one side of a wall, partition, ceiling, or roof, precautions must be taken to prevent ignition of flammable materials on the other side by relocating the materials. If it is impractical to relocate the materials, a person acting as fire watch must be provided on the side opposite from where the work is being performed.
11. Hot work must not be attempted on a partition, wall, ceiling, or roof that has a flammable covering or insulation, or on walls or partitions with flammable sandwich type panel construction.
12. Hot work that is performed on pipes or other metal that is in contact with flammable walls, partitions, ceilings, roofs, or other materials must not be undertaken if the work is close enough to cause ignition by heat conduction.
13. Access to the permitted hot work area by people not involved in the work must be controlled.
14. Curtains, closed doors, barricades or other means must be used to prevent any ultraviolet radiation from leaving the permitted area.
15. If water hoses are located within the permitted hot work area, they must be connected and ready for service, but it is not required that they be unrolled or charged with water.
16. A fire watch is required at all times including when the fire alarm systems have been taken offline.

Special precautions must be taken to avoid accidental activation of automatic fire or smoke detection or suppression systems such as sprinklers or other special extinguishing systems. When conducting hot work in close proximity to a fire sprinkler, a wet rag or similar heat barrier must be laid over the sprinkler head during hot work, and removed at the conclusion of the operation.

A request should be made to the CSUDH campus fire alarm company in order to disable fire detection devices in the vicinity of the work area. The PAI named on the hot work permit is responsible for calling the vendor to disable the alarms or detectors. The PAI is then responsible to call the vendor back to rearm the fire detection system.

Based on the scope of work and local conditions, the PAI must determine the length of time for which the hot work permit is valid and note this on the permit.

 The hot work permit area must be inspected by a PAI at least once per day while the permit is in effect to ensure that it remains a fire-safe area.

Reducing or Increasing the Fire-Safe Distance

The PAI may enlarge or reduce the fire-safe work area as local conditions allow, but must describe these deviations from protocol on the hot work permit. When, for example, windy conditions enable sources of ignition to travel farther than 35-feet, the permit conditions must be extended to the estimated distances and area indicated by local conditions. When it has been determined that the hot work will not generate or transport ignition sources outside of the immediate area, the permit conditions may be reduced to the area of safe operation. 

Hot work permits must be kept on file by the issuing department for 6 months. They must be made available for review by EH&S or other regulatory authorities upon request.

An inventory of designated hot work areas approved by EH&S is maintained by EH&S and the department where the designated hot work area exists.

Training records including rosters and subjects covered should be kept by the department and copies kept with EH&S.

Training for hot work should be conducted every 3 years, or as a retraining in the event of an incident. Fire Extinguisher training is required annually

Respiratory protection program training records must be kept for any employees who use respiratory protection. Those records must be maintained by the department responsible for the hot work and EH&S.

CSUDH Hot Work Permit [PDF]

Hot work submissions must be uploaded to the link below at least 24 hours before work begins, upload permit here:

Hot Work Permit Dropbox