Cooking facilities are present in a vast range of commercial premises including hotels, schools, restaurants, fast food outlets and public houses plus less obvious examples such as work canteens in factories or offices. Causes of fires are varied and include electrical faults in fixed wiring or the numerous appliances that can be present plus the cooking process itself, especially with the presence of hot cooking oils in deep fat fryers.
The resultant loss of a facility and disruption to the business can have a severe and immediate impact especially where cooking is the core activity. Where cooking is an ancillary activity in a ‘host’ occupancy, a fire starting here can spread to more important areas of a premises and cause widespread damage.
The risk where cooking is undertaken needs to be understood, managed and controlled in order to reduce the likelihood of a fire starting in the first place or mitigating the extent of damage should the worse happen.
In order to do this, it is necessary to firstly consider the inherent risks associated with cooking facilities before deciding on an effective program of risk control measures.
One of the biggest hazards in a kitchen is the use of cooking oils which are typically used at temperatures of around 200ºC. If the temperature the oil is heated to is too high, either by operator error or failure of the thermostats, then self-ignition can result in a fierce fire which unless controlled can spread easily to surroundings and into hard to reach hidden areas such as extract plenums and ducts.
The safety margin between cooking and self ignition temperatures reduces as the oil is used due to oxidation processes and contamination so regular replacement with fresh oil is important.
During the cooking process, grease laden fumes are produced which will deposit on surfaces especially in extract hoods, plenums and ducts.
If these grease deposits are left to accumulate over time and are ignited, the fire will be difficult to extinguish manually especially if it spreads to hidden or inaccessible areas.
Fire spread through greasy ducting can be rapid and will jeopardise other portions of the building which can potentially result in significant direct damage and consequent interruption to the business.
Controls that can be in place generally fall into 2 categories which are:
The following issues under these 2 headings should be considered fully to create an integrated risk control program:
In view of the speed and severity of deep fat fryer fires, the provision of a suitably designed and installed automatic wet chemical kitchen fire suppression system is one of the most effective solutions. These systems will provide a safe and effective means of controlling kitchen fires that if uncontrolled, can result in significant damage and consequent interruption to operations.
For further information, please contact your RMC Engineer