I've spent all my 9-5 time in sawmills, where fire is a constant danger when doing repair work, with either torches, welders, air arcs, grinders or the like. And the torch is just about the no. 1 tool used in a sawmill.
One item that hasn't been mentioned is water. The absolutely simplest but very effective fire protection is a simple garden hose with a hand sprayer on it. Another item is a p*ss can...a can that holds about 5 gallons of water with a hand pump built onto the hose. These things are heavily used in the forest fire fighting business. In the sawmills, we would put a little winshield washer anti-freeze into them (environmentally friendly and all) so you could use it in freezing weather.
I use the cans when working around the farm-- easy to have with you and effective.
For those that do metal cutting with a saw, a combination of cutting to watch for is aluminum and steel. The combination of steel and aluminum can get you pretty close to thermite, which is a combination of a metal and an oxide. It only takes a spark to ignite. Its not explosive but will burn very hot--enough to melt steel. There's stories around where guys have machined aluminum in a lathe and then went on to machining steel without cleaning up the bed....and burnt their lathe in half. Just another thing to be "situationally aware of" when cutting metals.
Jon.
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