Causes of fire relating to construction and maintenance

Many of the causes of fire detailed above can relate to work involving construction and maintenance operations. Equally the preventive measures that may be adopted to minimise the risk of a fire occurring in construction and maintenance operations may be equally valid across many sectors of industry. This section of the book will look at specific causes of fires in construction and maintenance operations. 

A large proportion of fires started within the construction sector fall under the following key headings  

Generally the term hot work applies to the use of open flames, fires and work involving the application of heat by means of tools or equipment. 

The use of naked flames and tools that apply heat, in themselves will not necessarily be the cause of fire, but the inappropriate use of the equipment or lack of control of combustible materials, flammable vapours, etc. when undertaking hot work operations have been the start of many fires within the construction and maintenance sector. 

It is often the case that sparks of heat generated in such ways may go unnoticed for long periods of time 

---