Kitchen fires are scary, catastrophic, and usually preventable. Yet, many restaurant owners and managers ignore obvious risks and best practices. If only they did the simple math: Proper kitchen maintenance costs far less than a bankrupt restaurant.
Between 2012 and 2016, fire departments across America responded to an average of 8,240 structural fires in restaurants each year. Most of those fires started in the kitchen. About 30% of them involved deep fryers, and around 20% involved cooking ranges.
Decreasing the Risk of Kitchen Fires
There are a few steps you can take to reduce the risk of kitchen fires in your restaurant. First, your kitchen should have an approved chemical fire suppression system installed. Such a system will extinguish fires with a combination of oxygen depletion and water-based cooling.
Did you know you’re legally obligated to get your kitchen fire suppression system inspected semi annually? If you don’t, you’re breaking FC609.5 and FC609.4 of the FDNY Fire Code. Additionally, you’re making your kitchen more vulnerable to fire. With a maintained suppression system, a kitchen fire will be extinguished before it spreads. With a faulty system, your kitchen will have no attack against an oil or gas fire.
Furthermore, you should hire professionals to clean your kitchen ducts and hoods. Dirty hoods and ducts are unclean and a significant fire hazard to your kitchen. Grease is highly flammable, and without proper maintenance, your kitchen can go aflame in a heartbeat. With a quarterly inspection and cleaning, you’re drastically reducing the risk of a fire in your kitchen.
Lastly, stock your kitchen with a Class K fire extinguisher, which can extinguish cooking oil, fat, and grease fires. Let’s say your kitchen suddenly catches on fire. Before you know it, it expands beyond the reach of your kitchen’s fire suppression system. What now? Unless you have a Class K extinguisher, your kitchen might be toast. With a Class K fire extinguisher, though, your damages will be minimal.
Proper kitchen fire suppression maintenance is simple. And with TFP, our experts will do it for you. Call TFP today to schedule maintenance on your fire suppression system.
Learn about kitchen fire suppression systems and services from Total Fire Protection or call (718) 951-7200.
