Improve fire safety in commercial kitchens with our guidance
12/18/2023
Kitchens have all the ingredients for a devastating fire. Use our short risk topic to help identify and manage fire safety in commercial kitchens.
Fires in commercial kitchens can happen for many reasons
Fires in commercial kitchens occur for many reasons and can cause a significant amount of damage and disruption. The common reasons for fire include failure of thermostats and electrical faults, but the fire will be worse if your extraction ductwork and filters aren’t cleaned often enough.
Fire events spreading into ductwork that have excessive grease build-up is especially hazardous and can become out-of-control quickly. Regular maintenance and cleaning can help prevent fires, protect people, and reduce disruption.
Kitchen fires can cause devastating losses
Cooking, especially deep fat frying, presents fire risks but these can be controlled much more effectively through correct siting, installation, and maintenance of equipment. Robust training, housekeeping, and maintenance procedures are also important.
The common sources of risk we see during inspections of commercial kitchens include:
- Cooking appliances that haven’t been maintained properly.
- Filters not in place when cooking, or not being cleaned properly.
- Ductwork not being maintained or cleaned frequently enough.
- Reusing older oil, that is more likely to ignite.
- Lack of training or compliance with established procedures, such as wedging open fire doors.
We published our risk topic to help increase awareness of the risks and reduce the likelihood of major fires.
To maximise fire prevention review your key controls
The most common issues we see with customers could be addressed through better maintenance, and asking:1. Is your ductwork being cleaned in accordance with the TR19 industry standard which is issued by the Building and Engineering Services Association (BESA)?
2. Are your filters being regularly cleaned to avoid excessive grease build-up?
3. If your kitchen is carrying out deep fat frying, do you have an automatic fire suppression system installed?
4. If you have an automatic fire suppression system installed, have staff had training on the action to take in the event of a fire?
5. Is kitchen equipment being regularly inspected and subject to an annual maintenance contract?
How to manage commercial kitchen fire risks
Cooking presents fire risks. When fires happen, they too often result in devastating damage to premises, disruption to business and lost revenue. Fires in kitchen extraction ducting systems are also common because grease build up can remain hidden for a long period of time.
Our Fire Safety in Commercial Kitchens risk topic, which is based upon a risk-based approach, can be used help to reduce your risk. The short guide which includes a one-page Kitchen Fire Safety Checklist can be downloaded for free.
For more information please email or visit us. If you would like specialist advice about your extraction cleaning regime, please contact Ventilate Consultancy and Control for further information and advice. Ventilate are a leading independent kitchen extract consultancy practice in the UK and provide a range of compliance services, monitoring and ensuring operators arrange effective cleaning and maintenance of their extract ventilation. For more details on any of Ventilate’s solutions, please email zrsuk.ventilate@uk.zurich.com*.
*By emailing, you consent to us sharing your personal data such as your contact details with Ventilate so that they can contact you with further information about their services. You may withdraw consent at any time by emailing us at zrsuk.ventilate@uk.zurich.com.
