Prevent Kitchen Fires in your Commercial Kitchen

8/28/2021 (Permalink)

Follow these steps to prevent commercial kitchen fires!

According to FEMA, on average, a fire in a commercial kitchen will result in an average loss of $23,000. For about 43 percent of those restaurant’s, that fire caused a total loss, forcing the restaurant to shut its doors.

Fire Risks:

• Tight, cramped kitchens with staff going in and out, combined with open flames, heat and combustible material put commercial kitchens at risk of fires.
• Cooking is the leading cause of non-residential building fires.

The two most common kitchen fires can be avoided with regular cleaning. They are exhaust hoods and grease traps.

Poorly maintained Exhaust Hoods can turn a minor fire into a raging inferno. Built-up residue on an exhaust system becomes combustible and grease residues can ignite and spread throughout the entire duct system. This would result in a wider area of your building affected by the fire and smoke damage.

When Grease is present in a commercial kitchen it is highly combustible and is an obvious fire hazard. It is one of the most overlooked, but easy to avoid causes of commercial kitchen fires.

Commercial kitchen fires can happen at any time. It is very important to be mindful of your cleanliness, processes and equipment on a daily/weekly basis to ensure there is not an obvious hazard staring you in the face. Educate your staff to recognize these hazards and have safety procedures in place. Following these very important steps will help with fire prevention in your commercial kitchen. 

Another important thing that you can do is to make sure that your staff is adequately trained on how to operate a fire extinguisher to help minimize damage.

If a fire does occur, our technicians here at SERVPRO of Palm Desert are here to help with the clean-up! Give us a call 24/7 at (760) 346-7270!