Fire on a construction site is rarer than a storm – but when it happens, it doesn't bring a partial loss, it threatens a total one. And the source is dispiritingly mundane: welding, angle-grinding, melting bitumen, a temporary electrical network. In other words: fire-hazardous work phases that have their own rules – and those rules are also a condition of cover.
- Fire is part of CAR's basic cover – together with the protective and work-order requirements.
- Most losses are linked to fire-hazardous activity: welding, cutting, melting, temporary electrics.
- Documenting good practice (a permit system, fire watch, equipment) is evidence at claim time.
- On work in an operating building, fire is also the biggest risk that reaches outward.
Where does fire come from?
The statistical picture has looked similar for decades: work involving naked flame or sparks (welding, angle-grinding, brazing, bitumen), waste and packaging catching fire, overloaded temporary electrical systems, and heaters used for winter working. The common denominator: almost all of it comes down to work order – not force majeure, but discipline.
The rules for fire-hazardous work
Good practice – also framed by the fire-safety regulations in force at the time – is familiar: tying fire-hazardous activity to a permit-and-register system, removing or covering combustible material nearby, having fire-fighting equipment to hand, a follow-up check after the work (a smouldering ember can flare up hours later), and orderly storage of waste. From an insurance point of view, what matters is that this routine is documented – a permit log, a site manager's entry – because that's the evidence at claim time: the loss assessment and documentation article.
When fire spreads outward
In an operating building, or where buildings stand wall-to-wall along a built-up street, fire doesn't stop at the boundary of the site: both the client's part of the building (existing property) and the neighbours (the liability section) can be affected – fires during roof-waterproofing and façade work are a recurring page in the case files. That's why fire-hazardous phases are the most strictly managed element of work in operating buildings.
If it happens anyway
With fire, the order is: people, the authorities (the fire service), loss mitigation, documentation, notification on the insurer's claims line – the process is here. The fire investigation documents become the key papers in the claim; disturbing the site before the visit should be avoided. And an honest observation: the rejection stories behind fire losses almost always come down to a missing permit-and-follow-up routine – and that's exactly what your own work order can change: the loss-prevention checklist.
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