- Fire Code Rules for Power Outages
- Outages Lasting Four Hours or More
- Hot Work During an Outage
- Increased Fire Risk in Your Area
With summer 2025 approaching, many parts of the country are bracing for prolonged local outages and widespread blackouts. Summer heat can push power grids to their limits, forcing organizations to adapt quickly or risk losing hundreds of hours of productivity due to power outages. States as diverse as Michigan, Texas, and Washington are likely to face at least one major outage, despite significant differences in climate and population distribution.
Local outages often occur without warning and can result in millions of dollars’ worth of damaged goods and infrastructure. Decision-makers must consider fire damage when developing risk management plans; however, many organizations overlook the impact of prolonged outages when crafting their strategies. This can lead to hasty decision-making that will either make matters worse or result in outsized expenses from vendors looking to take advantage.
Fire watch, for example, is often needed when outages drag on. Construction crews, residential management companies, and office complexes can find themselves in need of fire watch guards in a hurry if they haven’t sourced a reliable fire watch provider in advance. Failure to deploy fire watch during a prolonged outage can result in fines, forced shutdowns, and fire damage.
When is fire watch needed during a power outage, and how can you ensure safe and productive operations all summer? We’ve put together this short read to connect you with the information you need.
Fire Code Rules for Power Outages
Fire codes are typically established at the local level and enforced by the fire marshal in your community. The best way to understand every aspect of the fire code that affects your organization is to connect with your local authorities for a copy of all applicable fire codes and regulations.
That said, most municipalities do not craft their fire codes from scratch. Instead, they rely on the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a nonprofit organization comprised of industry experts who draft the fire code language that is adopted by communities around the country and the globe. The NFPA, along with OSHA, will require fire watch guards on-site during power outages when certain conditions are met:
Outages Lasting Four Hours or More
When a fire alarm system is inactive for four hours or more, your fire marshal may order an evacuation unless fire watch guards are deployed on-site. This is to ensure the safety of people and property, and to protect stakeholders from complex liabilities that may come from non-compliance. Fire watch guards must be specially trained personnel who patrol the area affected by the outage, acting as human smoke detectors until the outage has been resolved.
Hot Work Being Done During an Outage
Construction crews are especially aware that deadlines do not wait for weather. If an outage occurs in your community, project managers may decide to keep working to keep tasks on schedule.
Even under normal circumstances, OSHA regulations require fire watch guards to oversee “Hot Work” like welding or torching at locations that lack industrial safety equipment (like at construction sites). When an outage occurs, this requirement extends to any job site, since industrial safety and detection systems will likely be offline. Bottom line: if heat application tasks need to be done during a power outage, your team should deploy fire watch guards as a precaution.
Increased Fire Risk in Your Area
Regional blackouts can result from wildfires, which are much more prominent during the summer. Depending on your location, fire marshals may order fire watch guards to be deployed to assess active fire threats on an hourly basis. Large warehouses often deploy fire watch guards in this manner to advise local authorities on the spread of fire and to minimize property damage.
Contact National Firewatch
National Firewatch, along with our parent company, The Guard Alliance, has been providing same-day fire watch service across the USA since 2010. In that time, our team members have assisted through every type of extreme weather and blackout conditions to ensure our clients can stay safe and productive year-round.
We always advise folks in our network to partner in advance with a fire watch company that can reliably deploy to your location. This way, you can be sure guards are on site as soon as they are needed, instead of having to source fire watch in a hurry. It is our mission to be the quick-response fire watch team that America needs, whether you’re contacting us when crafting your risk management plan or need guards immediately.
From our satellite locations across the country, we are ready to dispatch fire watch guards to your location within hours of a power outage. Contact us immediately if you need guards today.