Here's something most contractors don't know: one of the world's five largest insurers is already telling fire watchers to take timestamped photos every 15 minutes as proof of compliance. Zurich Resilience Solutions published this recommendation because they've seen too many claims where the paper trail couldn't answer the most basic question — was anyone actually watching?
What Zurich Recommends
Zurich Resilience Solutions recommends fire watchers take timestamped photos every 15 minutes as proof of compliance. This is a major global insurer describing a manual workaround because they know paper logs aren't enough. The fact that carriers are asking for this level of verification tells you where the industry standard is heading.
The Claims Data
Zurich's Major Loss Team documented school fire losses ranging from £5.75 million to £18.5 million. At least three involved permit failures — one had no permit at all, and two had permits managed by the contractor without facility oversight. 15% of all commercial and industrial fires are caused by hot work.
The Contractor Risk
Fire risk more than doubles when outside contractors perform hot work without oversight. Zurich's data aligns with FM Global and AIG — the contractor-without-oversight scenario is the single most dangerous configuration for hot work fires.
Source: Zurich Resilience Solutions