F I R E W AT C H I N S T R U C T I O N S F O R T H E F O L L O W I N G
P E R F O R M AN C E F AC I L I T Y F I R E W A T C H D E T AI L :
G R AD Y G AM M A G E AU D I T O R I U M
S U N D E V I L S T AD I U M S K Y B O X E S
W E L L S F AR G O A R E N A
INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE
Arizona State University (ASU) has facilities of various types of occupancy and construction,
which are occupied 24 hours a day with numerous construction projects, facility repairs, and
trouble calls occurring at all times of day and night. It is the responsibility of the Authority
Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) / University Fire Marshal’s Office to ensure these projects, repairs,
and trouble calls are monitored for fire and life safety issues to protect the occupants of the
buildings on our campuses. This instruction along with the guideline is to provide a temporary
measure of safety through fire watch activity that will assure early notification to emergency
services.
DEFINITION
Fire Watch: A temporary measure intended to ensure continuous and systematic surveillance
of a building or portion thereof by one or more qualified individuals for the purposes of
identifying and controlling fire hazards, detecting early signs of unwanted fire, raising an alarm
of fire and notifying the fire department. A fire watch must be qualified and trained to meet the
criteria for which it is temporarily replacing (i.e. a by-passed function of the fire alarm system,
loss of function of a life safety component, etc…).
WHEN FIRE WATCH IS REQUIRED
A fire watch for Grady Gammage, Sun Devil Stadium Skyboxes, or Wells Fargo Arena must be
approved by the ASU Fire Marshal for each occurrence or need for a fire watch and the fire
watch must be in place prior to the system being disabled and prior to being occupied for any
event.
FIRE WATCH REQUEST
The request for a fire watch detail for by-passing any function of automatic fire and life safety
systems must be made by the property manager/owner to the ASU Fire Marshal for approval.
This instruction is specific to only the three buildings mentioned at the top of the first page of this
document (Grady Gammage Auditorium, Sun Devil Stadium Skyboxes, and Wells Fargo Arena).
DUTIES AND REQUIREMENTS OF FIRE WATCH
Because the fire alarm system is fully functional and by-passed, the fire watches must be from
Facilities Management FSST group to perform the by-pass, any mitigation with systems during
the event, and ability to restore the system to normal after the event.
This instruction is strictly for the ability to by-pass the automatic activation of the fire alarm
system’s audible and visual devices, and approved detection, allowing the qualified/trained
Facilities Management FSST staff to work with two staff—one as a continuous person
monitoring the fire alarm panel and the other roaming the area that is affected by the
disabling/by-pass (the roaming person is also the continuous fire watch when relieving the
continuous for restroom or other type of breaks which means the continuous becomes the
roaming fire watch).
While the fire alarm or other fire and life safety system is disabled or by-passed (and approve by
the ASU Fire Marshal):
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The continuous fire watch cannot leave their post at any time without having the
roaming (trained and qualified person) relieving the person to go to the bathroom or eat,
etc…
The continuous fire watch must have immediate communication to the roaming fire
watch via radio and also have a secondary communication such as cell phones.
Both fire watches must also have communication to the event command (command
post, etc..).
The continuous fire watch must have direct radio communication to the person incharge of the event or command post as well as have the phone contact information to
use cell phone as a back-up.
The roaming fire watch must roam all areas of the skyboxes where there are devices, so
that all areas have been inspected at least once every hour.
Upon any alarm condition (because the system is by-passed and will not sound or
provide any visuals to occupants of an alarm), the roaming fire watch must be
immediately notified by the continuous fire watch to verify the alarm condition or
supervisory condition is a concern to evaluate. If not an issue, the roaming fire watch
must be able to mitigate the concern so the panel is resolved (alarm or supervisory
condition corrected).
If there are any issues that caused the alarm or supervisory that is due to staff or
occupants, this must be reported to the person in-charge of the event or command post
to resolve, consult, or request ASU Police to address or arrest as deemed necessary
and appropriate.
Fire watch cannot leave until the system is brought back to normal condition. If any
issues with bringing back to normal condition, fire watches must contact the fire marshal
representatives that are working the event or call ASU Police to call the EHS on call
phone 1 and 2 prior to leaving the system in an inappropriate condition ( that is not the
designed normal state).
The attached log sheets must be used by both the continuous and roaming fire watch,
both logged on their own separate sheet, labelling the logs as either Continuous or
Roaming fire watch log.
All completed logs must be returned to the property manager of the facility and they
must provide a copy to the ASU Fire Marshal.
NOTE: Any questions or concerns, at any time during the fire watch duties, the fire marshal
representative working the event or the ASU Fire Marshal must be contacted.