Guide
When a property needs fire watch
Fire watch puts a person on a set route, looking over each area and writing down what they see at the interval your property chooses. This guide covers when properties arrange one, what happens on a round and how the log is kept.
Situations that lead to a fire watch
Properties usually arrange a fire watch when something in the building has changed and a person needs to look over certain areas more closely for a stretch of time. Common examples are a fire alarm or sprinkler system taken out of service for repair or replacement, renovation that opens walls and ceilings, and hot work such as welding or cutting on a construction floor.
Other situations come from how a building is being used. A warehouse holding more stock than usual in a busy season, a vacant building waiting for tenants and a property recovering from a fire or water leak all lead owners to want regular rounds and a written record. The watch fills a gap for a period and ends when the property decides it is no longer needed.
Whatever the trigger, the request usually comes from the local fire department or your insurer, and sometimes from your own management. Whoever asks shapes the areas, hours and log that our fire watch guards follow. A watch can often start within 24 hours of the request, and our security guard rates guide shows what one costs.
What a guard does on each round
A round is one pass along the route your property names, from its starting point to its end, repeated at the interval you set. Along the way the guard looks over the areas in the instructions: corridors, stairwells, mechanical rooms, storage rooms, work zones and exits. The guard watches for smoke, heat, burning smells, blocked exits, propped fire doors and anything else your instructions list.
Each round closes with a log entry before the next one starts. When the guard sees a concern, the notification steps your property wrote come first: the contacts in order, with alternates when the first person cannot be reached. The round then resumes, so the rest of the route still gets its check.
A fire watch guard keeps to the watch. That focus is what separates the role from a general post, where attention is shared between visitors, deliveries and patrol checks.
Building the watch log
The log is the main product of a fire watch, so settle its format before the first round. Most properties ask for the time of each round, the route or areas covered, the conditions seen and any notifications made. Some add a line for every area on the route, so a reader can confirm that each stairwell or storage room was reached.
Keep the format simple enough that every entry looks alike. A log that changes shape from one guard to the next is hard to read later, while a steady format lets a property manager scan a week of rounds without hunting for details.
Decide as well who receives the finished log and when. Many properties want it at the end of each shift; others ask for it when the watch ends.
Handing the log over at shift change
When a watch runs across several shifts, the handoff decides whether the record stays whole. The outgoing guard goes over the latest round with the incoming guard, points out open items such as a door that would not latch or a work area still in use, and passes the log along so the next entry picks up where the last one stopped.
A good handoff also confirms the instructions. The incoming guard checks the route, the interval and the contact order before the first round, so a change made earlier in the day carries forward instead of staying with the guard who heard about it.
Ask your contacts to send changes to the watch in writing, for example when a contractor finishes one floor and moves up to the next. Written updates keep every guard working from the same version of the instructions.
Fire watch at different properties
The route takes the shape of the building. A San Francisco office tower under renovation calls for rounds through corridors, stairwells and the floors where work is going on. A food processing or cold storage building in Salinas puts production rooms, storage and the docks on the route, and a distribution building adds the warehouse floor and the yard.
On a property that already has an entrance guard or a patrol, the fire watch runs beside them without borrowing their time. If you are still weighing those two, see choosing between mobile patrol and an on-site guard. Each role reports to the contacts named for it, so the watch log never gets mixed in with visitor records or patrol notes.
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A few useful answers
Quick answers.
How long does a fire watch last?
As long as your property needs it. The watch ends when the situation behind it is resolved and the property decides to stop the rounds.
What does a fire watch guard look for on a round?
Smoke, heat, burning smells, blocked or propped exits and any other condition your instructions list, in every area on the route.
Who decides the time between rounds?
Your property does, along with the areas, hours and log format. Guards follow those instructions for the length of the watch.
What happens to the log at the end of a shift?
The outgoing guard hands it to the incoming guard along with any open items, and the finished log goes to the contacts your property names.