Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Finding furtive fire hazards in your car mancave

I was reading the 11th September Army Safety Gram: Finding Furtive Fire Hazards, and found a few things that I can do to minimize fire hazards in the small garage where my precious is being renovated. Fire hazards are everywhere and it is up to us to recognize them and do everything we can to prevent them. My wife always asks me 2 questions when I come into the house after an afternoon's work: did you unplug the extension cords? Did you close the garage door? She knows I am tired and I usually forget to do things. I really appreciate her follow-up and feel good that I have that extra layer of safety to make sure nothing goes wrong.
These are the things I need to do right away to make my workplace safer:
  1. Maintain a metal container with a lid to store all of my cleaning rags, especially if they are oily
  2. Empty the trash every day after every work session. Most of the stuff in a trash can can fuel a fire.
  3. Sweep and wipe surfaces on a daily basis. Fine dusts and powders can burn and cause explosions.
  4. Get rid of an old sofa (made of wood and vinyl). No need for it to be there and it can feed a fire.
  5. I got me a used space heater for when winter arrives. I will not use it. It's just not safe (it's not the heater, it's the operator!).
  6. Keep all of my spray paints, solvents, and anything flammable, in a metal storage cabinet outside of the garage. Easy!
  7. NEVER overload an electrical circuit. Use one power tool at a time and minimize daisy-chaining
  8. Inspect all extension cords for serviceability.
  9. Keep a good fire extinguisher close by.
  10. Finally, after every session of work, I will run through every item of this Safetygram checklist.
In this website there are many useful safety Grams for everyone to read:
http://www.hnd.usace.army.mil/safety/Safety_Grams.aspx

2 comments:

  1. Good reminder for all of us. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think I've violated nearly every one of these tips. I've got some changes to make. :-)

    ReplyDelete