Taking shortcuts with fire protection in commercial kitchens can endanger lives and lead to downtime that threatens the viability of restaurants, cafés and catering businesses.
Running a successful and profitable restaurant or café is tough enough at the best of times.
So the prospect of an out-of-control kitchen fire shutting down an eatery for weeks or months is hard to stomach for restaurateurs. With careful planning and the right fire-suppression equipment, however, businesses can safeguard their properties and their people. Here are five ways to get it right.
1. Design with safety in mind
Factoring in fire safety right from the start of the design and planning phase is essential for any commercial building, and especially kitchens.
Industry professionals can survey a site and come up with an appropriate fire-suppression solution before any installations take place. This process can save time and money, and negates the prospect of having to do expensive retrofits down the track.
During this consultation phase, restaurant owners or managers need to clearly communicate their fire-safety requirements and engage with a supplier who is prepared to listen and respond to their specific needs. Likewise, they should not be afraid to grill a supplier on all the relevant building codes and regulations and how they will adhere to those rules. If suppliers show signs of wanting to cut corners, alarm bells should ring.
2. Identify the main risk areas
Restaurant fires typically start in the kitchen, where deep-fat fryers, cooking ranges and cooking grills are the three big dangers. Highly-flammable cooking oil or grease can build up in hoods and ducts of fryers and spark a blaze.
In such an environment, modern commercial kitchens rely on intelligent fire-suppression systems that incorporate the latest fire suppressant technology that literally starves a fire of air and/or cools. Strategically positioned discharge nozzles and heat detectors are other important safety elements.
3. Select proven fire-suppression systems
Commercial kitchens need pre-engineered systems that meet the highest
international standards and codes and which automatically detect and suppress a fire before it has time to take hold. Two standout options are Amerex and Ansul restaurant fire-suppression systems, both of which have been installed successfully in hundreds of thousands of kitchens internationally. The former uses linear pneumatic detection technology and a fast-reaction, low-pH, wet chemical suppression agent that targets cooking fat and grease fires, while the latter uses a sophisticated suppression agent that has three vital characteristics: fast flame knockdown; vapour securement; and the ability to cool hot surfaces and cooking oils. Both systems automatically cut gas and electricity supplies when a fire is detected and meet all the relevant Australian and international standards.
4. Go with an experienced installation team
After the design and fire-suppression selection phase, an efficient installation process is vital to minimise downtime, which can be a real budget killer. There is no room for inexperience given the highly flammable nature of commercial kitchens. A fire can quickly engulf a building, so poor installation of suppression systems will almost certainly have dire consequences.
5. Insist on strong after-sales service
The commissioning and ongoing testing of fire-suppression systems after installation is a legal requirement designed to improve safety outcomes and ensure that all components of any new system are working properly.
Of course, some restaurateurs want naturally to cut costs with fire-suppression systems. However, the overall expense is miniscule when compared with the potential loss of revenue in the aftermath of a serious blaze, not to mention the risk to the lives of staff and diners.
Delta Fire Australasia specialises in the design, installation and servicing of commercial kitchen fire-suppression systems that safeguard many of the country’s premier restaurant kitchens. Visit www.deltafire.com.au for more details.