How to Prevent Restaurant Fires

Fire outbreaks in commercial kitchens occur more often than you can ever imagine, and they can be very dangerous and costly. Apart from putting the employees in danger, they can cause a lot of damages and have a devastating effect on your business. Remember, the safest fire is one that never happens.

Giant fire hazard and incidences, you may have to shut down until you make the necessary repairs. Hence, you need to take some vital steps to prevent catastrophic consequences of a kitchen fire from breaking out in your restaurant kitchen, after all the kitchen is the soul of a restaurant.

Best Practices on How to Prevent Fires in Restaurant Kitchens

Install fire safety equipment

One of the important things to consider when drawing plans to open a restaurant is to ensure that its kitchen has the major fire safety equipment. Such equipment includes a smoke detector, an automatic fire suppression, portable fire extinguishers, and kitchen fire suppression systems.  A partial sprinkler system, class K extinguishers and special classes of fire extinguishers are all part of an appropriate fire prevention plan per the National Fire Protection Association.

The purpose of the automatic fire-suppression system is that once it detects flames, it will discharge chemicals over the affected area and automatically shut off the gas or electric supply to the affected appliance. 

Likewise, a smoke detector provides an early fire warning sign by detecting smoke in the kitchen, while a fire extinguisher will help put out smaller fires.

Train your staff to handle fire hazards

All of your restaurant staff should know something as basic as how to operate a fire extinguisher, safety codes, electrical connections switches, automatic fire suppression system actuators and other simple safety measures like using the emergency exits when necessary.

Also, ensure that you give them adequate training to prevent and handle fire hazards by ensuring general cleanliness and sanitation of the restaurant kitchen.

Clean up the exhaust system

Every restaurant oven hoods should be cleaned to remove flammable liquids that cause uncontained fire. Your kitchen hood should be free of everyday kitchen hazards like paper products and gas leaks. Clean walls and best practices for commercial kitchens include proper placement of fire extinguishers, maintaining electrical equipment, and proper cleaning procedures training for restaurant staff.

Hence the need to ensure proper and regular cleaning of the kitchen exhaust hood system. You should always employ the service of a certified professional kitchen hood cleaning service for this. Certified hood cleaning companies will remove all the flammable liquids from the exhaust hood to ensure fire safety.

Protect your restaurant investment

Installing fire safety suppression systems, regular scheduled kitchen hood cleanings, and training your commercial kitchens employees are some of the best practices to help prevent and control fire outbreaks and protect your investment too. With proper care and maintenance of your commercial kitchen hood, you can keep your employees and customers safe from fire and other health hazards.