Showerthought: is old school fire watch actually better than the new automated systems?

I was on a job last month in a refinery near Houston where we had to do a ton of hot work near some old piping. The safety guy wanted us to use this new automated fire watch system with sensors and cameras instead of a guy sitting there with an extinguisher. I argued for a real person because I've seen too many false alarms on those sensor setups. We compromised and used both for the first day... the automated system triggered three times from dust and steam while the human spotter never once called out a real issue. Now I'm wondering if I was wrong to push back so hard. Has anyone else dealt with these automated fire watch setups on your sites? Do you trust them or do you still prefer a real set of eyes on the job?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby_robinson5810d ago

Wait, three false alarms in one day from dust and steam? That's insane.

blake_black4710d ago

@abby_robinson58 Yeah, and the robot probably cost more than my truck payment for a week.