Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Audit Program
2. Layout and Spacing
3. Control of Ignition Sources
4. Employee Training
5. Housekeeping
6. Incident Investigation
7. Inherently Safer Design
8. Plant Maintenance
9. Management of Change
10. Material Hazards
11. Alarm and Surveillance
An audit is a systematic, independent review to verify
conformance with established guidelines or standards
An audit uses a well-defined review process to ensure
consistency and allow the auditor to reach
conclusions
An audit evaluates the procedures, operations, and
activities performed in the management and
execution of a program in order to verify conformity
to established criteria
to provide feedback to management and those
responsible for the status of the audited program
layout and spacing as a key means of
preventing the spread of fires
All site buildings and structures are
constructed of noncombustible materials,
particularly exteriors and structural support
systems.
Control rooms, operating offices, and their
occupants are separated from potential
hazardous processing areas.
Storage of large volumes of flammable or
combustible materials is separated from high
value operating or processing areas and
personnel occupancies.
Fire process heaters and boilers, incinerators,
flares, and other equipment with flame burners
are located at an appropriate distance from high
value operating or processing areas, large
volume storage of flammable or combustible
materials, control rooms, operating offices, and
their occupants.
A fundamental element of fire prevention
The process should be designed, installed,
and operated to minimize or prevent the
release or spill of flammable gases, liquids, or
combustible dusts
eliminate or control ignition sources
Electrical area classification
Control of personal ignition sources
Control of hot work
Control of static electricity
National Electric Code (NFPA 70) divides
hazardous locations into three classes
according to the nature of the hazard:
Class I Flammable Liquids and Gases
Class II Combustible Dusts
Class III Easily Ignitable Fibers and Flyings
These ignition sources include any material,
object, or device that is potentially or capable
of producing a spark.
Pagers
cellular phones
personal digital assistants (PDAs)
personal radios
music players
matches, lighters
carelessly discarded cigarettes
other smoking materials
Open flame of a torch used for heating or
thawing process lines
Torch cutting
Welding
Improperly applied electric arc welding
grounding clamps
Molten slag or metal that flows from the work
piece
Improperly handled soldering iron or propane
torch
Grinding sparks that fly from the work
Electric motor-powered hand tools
Portable heaters
Forklift trucks or other industrial powered vehicles
not rated or classified for use in a potentially
hazardous area
Vacuum tank trucks removing spilled
flammable/combustible material
Roofing installation or repair using hot-mopped
asphalt or using openflame
heating devices to seal roofing sheet membrane
seams
Diesel engines need to be remotely sited or
provided with flame arrestors, insulation on hot
surfaces/exhausts
Control of hazards related to portable
equipment and hot work requires developing
and maintaining a comprehensive hot work
procedure
Assigned responsibility for the program
A permit system requiring:
Job site to be inspected before work begins
Testing for the presence of flammable vapors and
inspection for combustible materials
Personal protective equipment appropriate to the job
Additional temporary protections, e.g., a
firewatch with fire extinguisher
A time limit for the duration of the permit
Signed approval by a designated authorized
person
Close-out of work permit
Training of personnel
Providing/maintaining necessary equipment,
e.g., flammable vapor detectors
Auditing and periodic review of program.
Flow of liquids in piping
Pneumatic conveying of dusts, powders, or particulates
Splash or free-fall filling of tanks, vessels, or containers
Mixing and blending of powders
Use of wet steam
Moving nonconductive rubber belts, e.g., conveyors or
drive belts
Personnel wearing nonconductive shoes
Static generated by clothing
Atmospheric lighting strikes
Stray electrical currents from faulty equipment,
improperly applied electric welding leads, or other sources
to provide knowledge of process operations
and job execution skills is an important
aspect of incident and fire prevention
execute fire protection tasks
poor housekeeping contributes to an increased
frequency of loss and greater loss potential
Greater continuity of combustibles that makes fire
spread easier and increases the area of involvement.
Impaired ingress and egress.
Increased overall combustible loading that provides
more fuel to feed a fire and can increase the severity
of the fire.
Increased potential for severe secondary dust
explosions when dust accumulates.
Increased probability of fire.
Increased probability of spontaneous ignition in
residue accumulations or thick dust layers.
Clean environment and conditions free from
combustible fuel which can potentially ignited
Do not put flammable materials in the trash bin
Placement of recycle bin materials (paper, cardboard)
proper placement, do not block means of escape
Corridors and stairways should be free from fuel
loads (trash bin, recycle materials bin, etc)
No combustible materials outside the recycle bin
containers
Accidents cause:
Serious injury to personnel
Significant damage to property
Adverse environmental impact
A major interruption of process operations
A facility’s incident investigation process should
be based on a documented procedure defining
the goals and requirements of incident
investigations and providing detailed steps
outlining how incident investigations will be
performed and reported
The facility Incident Investigation Procedure
should clearly establish the process,
responsibilities, and accountability for
incident investigations
Inherent or Intrinsic—eliminating the hazard by
using materials and process conditions that are
nonhazardous (e.g., substituting water for a
flammable solvent).
Passive—eliminating or minimizing the hazard by
process and equipment design features that do
not eliminate the hazard, but do reduce either
the frequency or consequence of the hazard
without the need for any device to function
actively (e.g., the use of higher pressure-rated
equipment).
Active—using controls, safety interlocks, and
emergency shutdown systems to detect
potentially hazardous process deviations and
take corrective action. These are commonly
referred to as engineering controls.
Procedural—using operating procedures,
administrative checks, emergency response, and
other management approaches to prevent
incidents or to minimize the effects of an
incident. These are commonly referred to as
administrative controls.
Overall plant-wide maintenance is an
element of fire prevention
It is shared with the business need to
maintain the production process, as well as
with Process Safety Management and other
health, safety, and environmental programs
Change in key indicators, i.e., mean time
between failure, overdue inspections, reduced
equipment availability
Frequent or temporary repairs
Process leaks, releases, and spills
Missing covers on equipment
Electrical panels left open
Insulation left off after maintenance
Unpainted rusting pipework and structural metal
Nonfunctional gauges and instruments
High ratio of preventive to repair maintenance
work
A maintenance organization with leadership
that can implement and support an effective
maintenance program and appropriately trained
personnel who will consistently “do the job right
the first time, on time.”
An ongoing risk analysis and risk ranking system
that focuses and supports maintenance program
needs.
Risk-based maintenance priorities that ensure
sufficient resources are applied to items
identified as high risk (critical equipment).
Clear management support and commitment
for critical equipment maintenance, testing, and
inspection, since these activities often require
production downtime in order to be performed.
Written procedures to describe how critical
equipment maintenance will be performed,
quality-controlled, and safety-ensured, such as
use of decontamination, hot work, line-
breaking, and lockout/tagout procedures.
An efficient work order system that provides
adequate description of work to be performed, the
parts required, and the procedures to be followed.
This work order system should also document
completed work information in equipment history
files.
Controls and sign-offs in the work order system that
ensure Management of Change procedures are
followed.
Precautions and practices to ensure that equipment
worked on has been restored to its normal conditions
before it is returned to service.
A maintenance information system that details
equipment and component maintenance scope
and frequency, documents work completed, and
provides feedback on maintenance program
effectiveness.
Controls and surveillance procedures that
ensure contractor-performed work also adheres
to all facility health, safety, and environmental,
and loss prevention programs.
Management of Change (MOC) procedures
ensure that changes and modifications to
operations receive appropriate review and
approval before implementation
to ensure that proposed changes are analyzed
for their possible impact on fire prevention
review of potential hazards
Approval by a designated person or function
with fire prevention and protection
responsibility.
Materials Hazard Identification and
information gathering is an essential element
of fire prevention
Materials Hazard Identification program
requires knowledge of a material’s toxicity
and reactivity, as well as flammability
Assign responsibility for the program to determine
the physical and chemical properties of each material
handled at the facility.
Collect available information, evaluate the hazardous
properties, and identify the relative hazard levels of
each substance and any necessary handling
precautions.
Identify those potentially hazardous materials for
which important properties are unknown and conduct
appropriate material hazards evaluation tests.
Distribute material hazard information and handling
precautions to employees, emergency response
organization, and others as appropriate.
Facilities should obtain data about a
substance from the chemical manufacturers’
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) or from
other published sources
material brought onsite by contractors
Provide notification of emergency events
Can be used manually by people observing
the emergency
Can automatically activate protection
systems
Notify those onsite of an emergency and
communicate actions to take
Provide surveillance of the facility for fire
Notify offsite emergency response
organizations
NFPA 72, NFPA 101
A continuously manned location for receiving
and acting on reported incidents and
emergencies.
Automated detection and protection systems to
signal at an offsite central alarm station service
for continuous monitoring.
A reporting system for personnel to report
incidents and emergencies to the manned
station. This could include an “alarm pull-box”
system, plant telephones, or radios.
An alarm system for notifying personnel of an
emergency in progress and for communicating
action required, such as information only,
shelter-in-place, or evacuate. This could include
bells, sirens, whistles, horns, or public address
systems.
A documented procedure for periodically and
systematically testing the reporting and alarm
systems to confirm their functionality.
Assurance of an acceptable level of surveillance
for the facility by appropriate resources,
procedures, and facility design features.
Perimeter fences with anti-climbing features
Adequate illumination of perimeter and key
areas at night
Locked gates at road and railroad entrances
Surveillance video cameras at gates,
perimeters, and strategic locations
Guard/security personnel sufficient to staff a
central station and provide routine checks at
key points in the facility
Motion detectors