The Trusted Source for Fire Watch Guard Services

Call dispatch with your address, the reason for the watch, and your required start time. We will check available coverage and confirm an estimated arrival time. Timing depends on your location, staffing needs, and current availability.

Requirements vary by jurisdiction and assignment. Guards should understand fire hazards, emergency reporting, patrol procedures, and recordkeeping. Some locations require a specific license or certificate. Confirm the credentials required by your local fire authority before coverage starts.

Learn who can perform a fire watch

Staffing and patrol intervals depend on the affected area, building layout, occupancy, hazards, and the fire authority’s instructions. There is no single patrol schedule that fits every site. Provide your written order or impairment plan so coverage can be scoped correctly.

See staffing and patrol frequency guidance

For welding and cutting covered by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.252, a required fire watch must continue for at least 30 minutes after the work ends. This is not a universal cutoff: the applicable fire code, hot-work permit, or site authority may require a longer watch. Confirm the requirements before releasing the guard.

Read our OSHA welding and hot-work guide

For a system outage, the affected protection must be restored and any required testing, notifications, and release completed. For hot work, complete the required monitoring period and permit closeout. Follow the authority’s instructions before releasing the guard.

In some locations, trained employees may perform a fire watch if the responsible authority permits it and they meet the assignment’s requirements. Do not assume ordinary security or maintenance duties are enough. Confirm training, credentials, and whether other duties are allowed before assigning staff.

Review employee and guard requirements

A fire watch is a specialized compliance function. A fire guard is usually a broader security role. A fire watch guard is trained specifically to monitor fire hazards, run continuous patrols, and keep fire watch logs when your fire protection systems are impaired or high-risk work is underway. A general fire guard might handle access control and basic security with limited fire duties. When the fire marshal requires a fire watch, you need someone dedicated to fire monitoring and nothing else, which is exactly what our guards do.

On patrol, our guard walks a set route around your property, watching for fire hazards and confirming that fire safety equipment is in place and ready. They check for smoke, heat, and ignition sources, log each round with a timestamp, and document anything worth noting. The exact route and interval depend on the site and what your Local Fire Inspector requires. A patrol at an industrial plant looks very different from one at a corporate event, and we brief the guard accordingly.

A checklist matters for any property, large or small, because it keeps the watch consistent and gives the inspector a clear record. A typical fire watch checklist covers fire exit inspections, hazard monitoring, patrol timing, and the communication steps a guard follows during the shift. Our guards work from one on every deployment, so nothing gets missed and your documentation stays clean.

A fire watch procedure template is a written outline of how a watch is conducted. It lays out the guard’s duties, the patrol and inspection steps, the communication protocols, and what to do in an emergency. Think of it as the playbook for the shift. It keeps every guard consistent and gives you and the Local Fire Department a clear record of how the watch was run.

Our West Coast coverage runs the full Pacific coast, from Seattle down to San Diego. Major markets include Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Fresno, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Diego. Every one of these cities has locally staged guards, which is what keeps emergency response times measured in hours instead of days. Not sure about your city? Call 1-800-899-7524 and dispatch will tell you.

We cover every major metro across Texas, the South, and the Southwest, including Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas. Each city page lists the fire code framework your fire marshal enforces there, along with typical rates and response times. If you need a guard in a smaller market, call 1-800-899-7524. We serve hundreds of cities beyond the ones listed here.