WAC 296-304-01001
Definitions. "Alarm" - A signal or
message from a person or device that indicates that there is a
fire, medical emergency, or other situation that requires
emergency response or evacuation. At some shipyards, this may
be called an "incident" or a "call for service."
"Alarm system" - A system that warns employees at the
worksite of danger.
"Anchorage" - A secure point to attach lifelines,
lanyards, or deceleration devices.
"Body belt" - A strap with means to both secure it around
the waist and to attach it to a lanyard, lifeline, or
deceleration device. Body belts may be used only in fall
restraint or positioning device systems and may not be used
for fall arrest. Body belts must be at least one and
five-eighths inches (4.13 cm) wide.
"Body harness" - Straps to secure around an employee so
that fall arrest forces are distributed over at least the
thighs, shoulders, chest and pelvis with means to attach it to
other components of a personal fall arrest system.
"Class II standpipe system" - A one and one-half inch
(3.8 cm) hose system which provides a means for the control or
extinguishment of incipient stage fires.
"Cold work" - Work that does not involve riveting,
welding, burning, or other fire-producing or spark-producing
operations.
"Contract employer" - An employer, such as a painter,
joiner, carpenter, or scaffolding subcontractor, who performs
work under contract to the host employer or to another
employer under contract to the host employer at the host
employer's worksite. This excludes employers who provide
incidental services that do not influence shipyard employment
(such as mail delivery or office supply services).
"Competent person" - A person who can recognize and
evaluate employee exposure to hazardous substances or to other
unsafe conditions and can specify the necessary protection and
precautions necessary to ensure the safety of employees as
required by these standards.
"Confined space" - A small compartment with limited
access such as a double bottom tank, cofferdam, or other
small, confined space that can readily create or aggravate a
hazardous exposure.
"Connector" - A device used to connect parts of a
personal fall arrest system or parts of a positioning device
system together. It may be:
• An independent component of the system (such as a
carabiner); or
• An integral component of part of the system (such as a
buckle or D-ring sewn into a body belt or body harness or a
snaphook spliced or sewn to a lanyard or self-retracting
lanyard).
"Dangerous atmosphere" - An atmosphere that may expose
employees to the risk of death, incapacitation, injury, acute
illness, or impairment of ability to self-rescue (i.e., escape
unaided from a confined or enclosed space).
"Deceleration device" - A mechanism, such as a rope grab,
rip stitch lanyard, specially woven lanyard, tearing or
deforming lanyard, or automatic self-retracting
lifeline/lanyard, that serves to dissipate a substantial
amount of energy during a fall arrest, or to limit the energy
imposed on an employee during fall arrest.
"Deceleration distance" - The additional vertical
distance a falling employee travels, excluding lifeline
elongation and free fall distance, before stopping, from the
point at which the deceleration device begins to operate. It
is measured from the location of an employee's body belt or
body harness attachment point at the moment of activation (at
the onset of fall arrest forces) of the deceleration device
during a fall, to the location of that attachment point after
the employee comes to a full stop.
"Designated area" - An area established for hot work
after an inspection that is free of fire hazards.
"Director" - The director of the department of labor and
industries or a designated representative.
"Drop test" - A method utilizing gauges to ensure the
integrity of an oxygen fuel gas burning system. The method
requires that the burning torch is installed to one end of the
oxygen and fuel gas lines and then the gauges are attached to
the other end of the hoses. The manifold or cylinder supply
valve is opened and the system is pressurized. The manifold
or cylinder supply valve is then closed and the gauges are
watched for at least sixty seconds. Any drop in pressure
indicates a leak.
"Emergency operations" - Activities performed by fire
response organizations that are related to: Rescue, fire
suppression, emergency medical care, and special operations or
activities that include responding to the scene of an incident
and all activities performed at that scene.
"Employee" - Any person engaged in ship repairing, ship
building, or ship breaking or related employment as defined in
these standards.
"Employer" - An employer with employees who are employed,
in whole or in part, in ship repair, ship building and ship
breaking, or related employment as defined in these standards.
"Enclosed space" - A space, other than a confined space,
that is enclosed by bulkheads and overhead. It includes cargo
holds, tanks, quarters, and machinery and boiler spaces.
"Equivalent" - Alternative designs, materials, or methods
to protect against a hazard which the employer can demonstrate
will provide an equal or greater degree of safety for
employees than the method or item specified in the standard.
"Fire hazard" - A condition or material that may start or
contribute to the spread of fire.
"Fire protection" - Methods of providing fire prevention,
response, detection, control, extinguishment, and engineering.
"Fire response" - The activity taken by the employer at
the time of an emergency incident involving a fire at the
worksite, including fire suppression activities carried out by
internal or external resources or a combination of both, or
total or partial employee evacuation of the area exposed to
the fire.
"Fire response employee" - A shipyard employee who
carries out the duties and responsibilities of shipyard
firefighting in accordance with the fire safety plan.
"Fire response organization" - An organized group
knowledgeable, trained, and skilled in shipyard firefighting
operations that responds to shipyard fire emergencies,
including: Fire brigades, shipyard fire departments, private
or contractual fire departments, and municipal fire
departments.
"Fire suppression" - The activities involved in
controlling and extinguishing fires.
"Fire watch" - The activity of observing and responding
to the fire hazards associated with hot work in shipyard
employment and the employees designated to do so.
"Fixed extinguishing system" - A permanently installed
fire protection system that either extinguishes or controls
fire occurring in the space it protects.
"Flammable liquid" - Any liquid having a flashpoint below
100°F (37.8°C), except any mixture having components with
flashpoints of 100°F (37.8°C) or higher, the total of which
make up ninety-nine percent or more of the total volume of the
mixture.
"Free fall" - To fall before a personal fall arrest
system begins to apply force to arrest the fall.
"Free fall distance" - The vertical displacement of the
fall arrest attachment point on the employee's body harness
between onset of the fall and just before the system begins to
apply force to arrest the fall. This distance excludes
deceleration distance, and lifeline/lanyard elongation, but
includes any deceleration device slide distance or
self-retracting lifeline/lanyard extension before the device
operates and fall arrest forces occur.
"Gangway" - A ramp-like or stair-like means to board or
leave a vessel including accommodation ladders, gangplanks and
brows.
"Hazardous substance" - A substance likely to cause
injury because it is explosive, flammable, poisonous,
corrosive, oxidizing, irritant, or otherwise harmful.
"Hose systems" - Fire protection systems consisting of a
water supply, approved fire hose, and a means to control the
flow of water at the output end of the hose.
"Host employer" - An employer who is in charge of
coordinating work or who hires other employers to perform work
at a multiemployer workplace.
"Hot work" - Riveting, welding, burning or other fire or
spark producing operations.
"Incident management system" - A system that defines the
roles and responsibilities to be assumed by personnel and the
operating procedures to be used in the management and
direction of emergency operations; the system is also referred
to as an "incident command system (ICS)."
"Incipient stage fire" - A fire, in the initial or
beginning stage, which can be controlled or extinguished by
portable fire extinguishers, Class II standpipe or small hose
systems without the need for protective clothing or breathing
apparatus.
"Inerting" - The displacement of the atmosphere in a
permit space by noncombustible gas (such as nitrogen) to such
an extent that the resulting atmosphere is noncombustible.
This procedure produces an IDLH oxygen-deficient atmosphere.
"Interior structural firefighting operations" - The
physical activity of fire response, rescue, or both involving
a fire beyond the incipient stage inside of buildings,
enclosed structures, vessels, and vessel sections.
"Lanyard" - A flexible line of rope, wire rope, or strap
which generally has a connector at each end for connecting the
body belt or body harness to a deceleration device, lifeline,
or anchorage.
"Lifeline" - A component consisting of a flexible line to
connect to an anchorage at one end to hang vertically
(vertical lifeline), or to connect to anchorages at both ends
to stretch horizontally (horizontal lifeline), and which
serves as a means for connecting other components of a
personal fall arrest system to the anchorage.
"Lower levels" - Those areas or surfaces to which an
employee can fall. Such areas or surfaces include but are not
limited to ground levels, floors, ramps, tanks, materials,
water, excavations, pits, vessels, structures, or portions
thereof.
"Multiemployer workplace" - A workplace where there is a
host employer and at least one contract employer.
"Personal alert safety system (PASS)" - A device that
sounds a loud signal if the wearer becomes immobilized or is
motionless for thirty seconds or more.
"Personal fall arrest system" - A system used to arrest
an employee in a fall from a working level. It consists of an
anchorage, connectors, body harness and may include a lanyard,
a deceleration device, a lifeline, or a suitable combination.
"Physical isolation" - The elimination of a fire hazard
by removing the hazard from the work area (at least
thirty-five feet for combustibles), by covering or shielding
the hazard with a fire-resistant material, or physically
preventing the hazard from entering the work area.
"Physically isolated" - Positive isolation of the supply
from the distribution piping of a fixed extinguishing system.
Examples of ways to physically isolate include: Removing a
spool piece and installing a blank flange; providing a double
block and bleed valve system; or completely disconnecting
valves and piping from all cylinders or other pressure vessels
containing extinguishing agents.
"Portable unfired pressure vessel" - A pressure container
or vessel used aboard ship, other than the ship's equipment,
containing liquids or gases under pressure. This does not
include pressure vessels built to Department of Transportation
regulations under 49 CFR Part 178, Subparts C and H.
"Positioning device system" - A body belt or body harness
system rigged to allow an employee to be supported at an
elevated vertical surface, such as a wall or window, and to be
able to work with both hands free while leaning.
"Powder actuated fastening tool" - A tool or machine that
drives a stud, pin, or fastener by means of an explosive
charge.
"Protected space" - Any space into which a fixed
extinguishing system can discharge.
"Proximity firefighting" - Specialized firefighting
operations that require specialized thermal protection and may
include the activities of rescue, fire suppression, and
property conservation at incidents involving fires producing
very high levels of conductive, convective, and radiant heat
such as aircraft fires, bulk flammable gas fires, and bulk
flammable liquid fires. Proximity firefighting operations
usually are exterior operations but may be combined with
structural firefighting operations. Proximity firefighting is
not entry firefighting.
"Qualified instructor" - A person with specific
knowledge, training, and experience in fire response or fire
watch activities to cover the material found in WAC 296-304-01019 (2) or (3).
"Qualified person" - A person who has successfully
demonstrated the ability to solve or resolve problems related
to the subject matter and work by possessing a recognized
degree or certificate of professional standing or by extensive
knowledge, training, and experience.
"Related employment" - Any employment related to or
performed in conjunction with ship repairing, ship building or
ship breaking work, including, but not limited to, inspecting,
testing, and serving as a watchman.
"Rescue" - Locating endangered persons at an emergency
incident, removing those persons from danger, treating the
injured, and transporting the injured to an appropriate health
care facility.
"Restraint (tether) line" - A line from an anchorage, or
between anchorages, to which the employee is secured so as to
prevent the employee from walking or falling off an elevated
work surface.
Note:
A restraint line is not necessarily designed to withstand forces resulting from a fall.
"Rope grab" - A deceleration device that travels on a
lifeline and automatically, by friction, engages the lifeline
and locks to arrest the fall of an employee. A rope grab
usually uses the principle of inertial locking, cam/level
locking or both.
"Shall" or "must" - Mandatory.
"Ship breaking" - Breaking down a vessel's structure to
scrap the vessel, including the removal of gear, equipment or
any component part of a vessel.
"Ship building" - Construction of a vessel, including the
installation of machinery and equipment.
"Ship repairing" - Repair of a vessel including, but not
limited to, alterations, conversions, installations, cleaning,
painting, and maintenance.
"Shipyard firefighting" - The activity of rescue, fire
suppression, and property conservation involving buildings,
enclosed structures, vehicles, vessels, aircraft, or similar
properties involved in a fire or emergency situation.
"Small hose system" - A system of hoses ranging in
diameter from 5/8" (1.6 cm) up to 1 1/2" (3.8 cm) which is for
the use of employees and which provides a means for the
control and extinguishment of incipient stage fires.
"Standpipe" - A fixed fire protection system consisting
of piping and hose connections used to supply water to
approved hose lines or sprinkler systems. The hose may or may
not be connected to the system.
"Vessel" - Every watercraft for use as a means of
transportation on water, including special purpose floating
structures not primarily designed for or used as a means of
transportation on water.