There are many basic rules of safety you should obey while you are working with any sort of welder. A few of the more important ones would be to always wear all of the appropriate protective gear that covers all of the needed areas, make sure that the material you are working on is properly secured in place, and if the welder ever malfunctions for any reason, maybe don’t try and check it by looking down the end where the scorching white flames come out of.
Source: http://www.gorge.net.au/basic-maintenance-need-to-do-before-welding/