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Knowing these 5 things can help prevent fire and liability issues on your property.

The exhaust system is an important part of any commercial kitchen. Far from just a simple venting system, it is actually a vital safety feature. As the owner of a commercial kitchen, you must understand the workings of this system as well as how to maintain it in order to protect your business from the risk of a grease fire. Here are 5 of the most important things you need to know about your kitchen exhaust system.

Owner’s Responsibilities

Under the regulations set up by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the owner of the commercial kitchen bears ultimate responsibility for the condition of the exhaust system as well as the necessary fire suppression equipment. You must arrange for inspections, maintenance, and cleanings or else risk being held liable for the damage from any fires that may occur in the kitchen. If you have a property management company handling these tasks for you, you must transfer your responsibilities to them in writing or else risk being held liable for their actions.

Exhaust System Cleaning Schedule

The NFPA has set out some guidelines for when kitchen exhaust systems must be cleaned. Depending on the type and volume of cooking that occurs in your kitchen, you may need to get cleanings every month, every quarter, or once or twice per year. At Flue Steam, we recommend monthly kitchen exhaust hood scraping supplemented by annual or semi annual exhaust system steam cleaning.

Cleaning Standards

Ideally, you would get your exhaust ducts cleaned down to the bare metal. If you can’t visually tell if a given exhaust hood or duct section is clean, you can ask an IKECA-certified professional to use a special comb to measure the depth of the grease on the metal and confirm whether or not it meets the standard.

Access Door Requirements

NFPA recommendations specify that an access door should be made in the exhaust duct every 12 feet of a horizontal run, every floor of a vertical run, and at every bend in the ductwork. Having these access doors makes it easier to access and thoroughly clean every inch of the exhaust system. If your ductwork does not have sufficient access, Flue Steam can help by installing new access points that meet code requirements.

Required Documentation

The Fire Marshall is typically the authority in charge of verifying that you have met your obligations as to the cleaning and maintenance of your exhaust system as required by the local fire code. You will need to get certification stickers and inspection reports from the company providing your kitchen exhaust system cleaning as proof that you have complied with your duties.

IKECA membership signals compliance with the gold standard of kitchen exhaust cleaning practices.

There are quite a lot of companies out there offering kitchen exhaust cleaning services. Unfortunately, not all of them are very reputable. They may not do a very good job, either unintentionally or deliberately, and because it is difficult to see every nook and cranny of your exhaust system, you may not realize that a shoddy cleaning has left your property at risk of a fire.

One excellent way to know you are working with a reputable company that provides quality services is to check for IKECA membership. IKECA stands for the International Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning Association. Membership in this trade organization signals that the company you’re about to hire is serious about their work. Flue Steam is proud to be an IKECA member because it enables our clients to rest assured as to the following key points.

Our Employees are Certified

As an IKECA member, Flue Steam employs individuals who have successfully completed IKECA courses related to kitchen exhaust cleaning and fire safety. This means that clients can rest assured our employees are fully trained and up to date on various tools and techniques involved in their work, as well as on local code requirements affecting kitchen exhaust systems.

We Follow Industry Best Practices

When you work with an IKECA company, you know that you are getting honest and accurate information about the best practices in kitchen exhaust system cleaning. In other words, you don’t have to wonder if you’re getting cleanings too seldom or too frequently, or if you’re having enough grease removed at each cleaning. We will provide all of this information to you based on our understanding of industry best practices as identified by IKECA.

We’re Dedicated to Ongoing Training

Many trade organizations award certifications for life. This is not true of IKECA. IKECA certifications must be kept up through the earning of continuing education credits, which can be acquired through attendance at various industry seminars and events. Because achieving and maintaining IKECA membership requires serious effort, it signals to our clients that we are dedicated to getting the latest training and education that will enable us to serve them better.

We Can Measure Our Work

One very helpful tool that IKECA puts out is a comb that can be used to measure the depth of grease buildups on exhaust hoods and duct walls. Using this comb, we can prove to you that our cleaning services have made a significant difference in the cleanliness of your exhaust system. We can also use data gathered from repeated use of the comb to estimate how fast grease builds up in your system and how frequently you need cleanings, to make sure you don’t waste money on cleanings before you need them or risk going too long between cleanings either.

Flue Steam provides important services that help your kitchen pass the fire safety portion of a restaurant inspection.

As the owner or operator of a commercial kitchen, you have countless regulations to comply with as to the condition of your facility, the behavior of your employees, and your food handling practices. With so many rules and requirements, the potential for surprise restaurant inspections by the health or fire authorities to result in a citation or even the temporary closure of your kitchen is very real. Fortunately, you can get expert help with the fire safety portion of a restaurant inspection from Flue Steam.

Here are the key areas that can trip up a restaurateur and result in a citation or failed inspection.

Facilities

The facilities of any restaurant need to be in a clean and sanitary condition. This includes the floor, ceiling, and walls of the dining area as well as the kitchen. Various amenities such as the employee restroom, the hot water, the plumbing in general, and the electricity also need to be in reliable working order. Plus, there are also additional requirements regarding the posting of menus with correct and accurate nutritional information.

Food Safety

It can take quite a lot of training to drum all the food safety requirements into your employees’ heads. Some requirements, like washing hands before and after handling raw meats and not cross contaminating surfaces, utensils, and containers with different raw meat products are common sense. Others, like not storing raw foods above ready to eat foods, are a little harder to remember because they aren’t something people worry about in private kitchens.

Fire Safety

In a commercial kitchen, there is a significant risk of fire associate with all the cooking that goes on, especially if lots of foods are fried, grilled, or otherwise prepared in a way that tends to release a lot of greasy vapor. Commercial kitchens are required to take certain steps to guard against the risk of fire in general and grease fires in particular. Flue Steam can help with many of these activities.

For example, we can ensure that your kitchen exhaust hoods remain free of dangerous amounts of grease buildup with hand scraping services. We can also help remove grease deposits that may have migrated further into the exhaust ducts with steam cleaning services. For maximum efficiency, we recommend hand scraping every month or so, supplemented by steam cleaning several times per year, depending on how much greasy food you cook in the kitchen.

Flue Steam can also install and service fire extinguishers and automatic fire suppression systems. We provide dated stickers each time we service these kinds of equipment to make it easy for you to prove that you’ve fulfilled your fire suppression obligations during a visit from the fire inspector.

Call Flue Steam today to schedule service, and help improve your chances of passing your next fire inspection with flying colors.

How you present your restaurant after a fire can have big impact on your success.

After a kitchen fire that causes enough damage to close your restaurant, you will have many obstacles to overcome on the way to reopening. In addition to repairing smoke and fire damage, you may also have to deal with water damage created when firefighters put out your fire. You’ll also have to deal with the impact of the fire on your brand and convince your customers to come back. However, the impact of a fire doesn’t have to be all negative. It can also provide opportunities for improvements that will benefit your business. Here are some examples.

Interior Design Updates

Assuming the fire is ruled accidental, you will surely get some insurance money to spend on your repairs. Why not augment those funds with some of your own and get a really awesome update to your restaurant furniture and décor? Depending on the extent of the damage, you may have an opportunity to change more than just carpeting and furnishings—you may even be able to redesign the kitchen or dining room to make it more attractive or more functional.

New Cooking Equipment

Another upside of a fire could be the chance to get new cooking equipment. This includes new exhaust hoods to go with the new ovens, ranges, fryers, etc. The latest generation of exhaust hoods come with some pretty impressive technology that will give you better control and oversight over their cleanliness.

Kitchen Air Flow Reassessment

When installing new cooking equipment or making changes to your kitchen layout and design, be sure to consider the effect this will have on your kitchen air flow. You may take this opportunity to get your air flow reassessed and purchase new exhaust fans or swamp coolers as needed.

Fire Prevention Improvements

Assuming the fire was linked to greasy exhaust hoods or ducts, you should definitely consider improvements in your fire prevention protocols. For example, you might want to increase the frequency of your exhaust hood scrapings or exhaust duct steam cleanings to help prevent grease from building up to dangerous levels again. You might also consider having new access panels cut into your ductwork to make it easier for every inch of the system to get clean, and you will certainly have to have your automatic fire prevention system reset and your portable fire extinguishers refilled or replaced.

Marketing Opportunities

Finally, don’t neglect to make an effort to turn the negative publicity surrounding your restaurant closure into positive publicity when you reopen. You might consider adding new items to the menu or planning a special grand reopening where you invite some of your most loyal customers.

Don’t let your restaurant make the news due to fire—get help from Flue Steam now.

At Flue Steam, we are constantly advocating for all restaurateurs to invest in comprehensive fire prevention services, including regular kitchen exhaust system cleanings and regular maintenance for code compliant automatic fire suppression systems. Getting behind in either of these activities can have an extremely negative impact on your business, as the following news items show.

Near the end of May, a Macaroni Grill located in Alexandria, Virginia caught fire and suffered over $300,000 in damages. The fire was noted at 2:45 am, a time when the restaurant was closed and empty, making it hard to say exactly why fire the fire started. What is clear is that the fire was centered inside a kitchen exhaust duct above a pizza oven, and then spread through the ductwork and burned the ceiling and roof area. Officials have concluded that the fire was an accident and that grease in the ductwork was the main fuel. This case serves to highlight the fact that restaurant owners don’t just have to worry about fires while cooking is actually going on. If grease is allowed to accumulate in the ducts, it can serve as fuel for any kind of fire, such as one caused by an electrical problem or even an arson fire.

Another news item comes from Pittsburgh, where a pair of restaurants are just now preparing to reopen after a four alarm fire gutted them in February. While the cause of the fire has not been disclosed, we can get a major clue from the facts that A) the fire was ruled accidental by the insurance company and B) the restaurant manager was especially excited to announce that improvements in kitchen safety have been incorporated into the newly renovated restaurants. Specifically, the management mentioned that they have a new oven with a CaptiveAire CORE hood featuring the most advanced kitchen safety technology available, including a “self-cleaning system that scrubs itself daily.” From these facts it would not be unreasonable to conclude that some kind of accidental grease fire was responsible for the original damage to the restaurants.

Protect Your Commercial Kitchen with Help from Flue Steam

If you want to protect your commercial kitchen from fire risks, you need to remember 3 things. First of all, installing quality kitchen exhaust system equipment can help limit risk of fires. Secondly, this equipment needs to be cleaned regularly in order to do its job. Thirdly, in the event that a fire does start in the kitchen, you need a first line of defense against that fire spreading, which can easily be provided by an automatic fire suppression system.

At Flue Steam, we offer all the assistance you need to limit fire hazards in your kitchen. We provide hand scraping of kitchen exhaust hoods as well as steam cleaning of ductwork and service for automatic fire suppression systems.