could have been very nasty.

[taycat]

Get home earlier from little shopping trip, to see 2 fire engines on one of avenues and load's of smoke.

just found out old guy had been welding and thrown some old sheets over stuff to protect from spark's,
apparently same sheet's he put under an old engine to catch oil whilst he worked on it.


luckily he was inside the house when it up.
bad bit as destroyed his shed and thames van, that was parked next to it.

Still good reminder to be careful.
i go and check work area for min 1hr after i have finished any grinding or welding.
also use fire blankets for covering things up.

 

[RonMig]

just to remove any doubt, a t-shirt does not work as a fire blanket ...

I now use sheets of leather sliced from my wife's old handbags ...

 

[sardine]

I use fire blankets, they get binned after the use by date is up, I find a few of them in skips now and again.

 

[steviec_lj]

just to remove any doubt, a t-shirt does not work as a fire blanket ...
View attachment 66306

I now use sheets of leather sliced from my wife's old handbags ...

Those must either be bloody big handbags or tiny welding projects!

Fire blankets all the time. Picked 4 up at the autojumble for £3.

 

[Kent]

I know it sounds mad at first but big bits of cardboard or better still hardboard can be pressed into service on a job and work ok as spark shields. failing that or wanting better you can buy fireproof tarps, saw machine mart stock them the other day when I was looking for something else.
Don't laugh about the use of cardboard I once used it on a big fire risk job in a factory and had a small team of workers holding them in place with another guy inside putting stuff out with a fire extinguisher inside my perimeter. it wont take major heat or flame but it will usually handle grinding sparks good enough and a bit of spatter without igniting in a push situation better than nowt

 

[Robotstar5]

i go and check work area for min 1hr after i have finished any grinding or welding.also use fire blankets for covering things up.

Most hot work permits require a check is made an hour after work is complete.

 

[dunk]

Don't laugh about the use of cardboard I once used it on a big fire risk job in a factory and had a small team of workers holding them in place with another guy inside putting stuff out with a fire extinguisher inside my perimeter. it wont take major heat or flame but it will usually handle grinding sparks good enough and a bit of spatter without igniting in a push situation better than nowt

well if it did`nt work at least you had something to fan the flames with

 

[daleyd]

I worked for 10 years for a company where we regularly needed to weld/repair/grind/fabricate industrial dryers and oxidisers in printing factories.

Although I wasn't the one doing the welding I was generally the engineer in charge so I ended signing work permits/hot work permits for the work.

In a factory full of paper, paper dust, solvent, inks, oils, rags etc this tends to concentrate the mind a little!! We had some contractors working at a company in Austria (leykam) that got the blame for starting a fire which destroyed the entire factory, including 5 large print presses (~£5 million - £10 million a piece) though I don't think it was ever proved they were actually responsible (there was other work going on at the time).

There was also another incident at Paarl media near Cape town, although not welding related a fire started in the canteen and 13 people died due to the fire spreading so quickly via solvents and paper/ paper dust. I went there shortly after to install a new machine at their sister company across the road and the devastation was horrific.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Young lad did it locally, his grandad was restoring a ford d series and died about 3/4 of the way through, absolutely beautiful job it was too. Left it his grandson, who did a bit of welding one day then wandered in the house to make a brew while whatever he welded cooled. Came out 20 minutes later to the whole spot being alight, completely ruined the old ford and the garage

 

[Kent]

This is why many welders insurance policies have such high fire excess my new policy is £2500 in case of fire