Commercial kitchens are the lifeline of restaurant owners and require smart fire-suppression strategies to keep them serving delicious food for diners. Here’s how you can safeguard your business and customers in five easy steps.
1. Understand your risks
Restaurant fire-suppression systems provide a way to detect and put out a fire quickly and efficiently. They typically are fitted to deep-fat fryers, cooking ranges and cooking grills, which are the forms of equipment that are most likely to spark a kitchen blaze. Grease build-up in hoods and ducts of fryers are a particular cause of concern and can quickly cause fires that spread through a kitchen and into restaurants or other nearby facilities. So, you must have a line of defence.
2. Take preventative action
Precautions are essential in commercial kitchens given that the lives and health of staff and customers could be at risk. Kitchen fires can quickly burn out of control, but having a system in place that kills the fire without shutting down the kitchen makes sense in both a safety and a business sense.
Water-based solutions are not usually an option in commercial kitchens because grease fires are likely to spread if water is around. By contrast, cost-effective options such as the Amerex KP-PRM and the Ansul R-102 have been protecting kitchens for many years and allow restaurateurs to maximise their ability to serve customers in a safe environment. Both systems automatically cut gas and electricity supplies when a fire is detected and also discharge chemical suppression agents if required.
3. Target the source
Typical fire-suppression systems connect to the hood over cooking stations and the gas line running through the cooking station. If the system is tripped, the gas line automatically shuts down and stops the fuel source of the fire.
In the event of a grease fire, linear pneumatic detection technology in advanced systems release a low-pH, wet chemical suppression agent to stop the fire. If it continues to burn, nozzles act as a second line of protection that discharge fire suppressants containing special compounds. Manual pull stations can also be used to activate any of the systems, which instantly interrupt the gas or electrical power to the cooking appliances.
All of these actions keep potential financial losses to a minimum if a fire breaks out, with only the food on the cooking surface being ruined.
4. Design for the future
While fire-suppression systems can be retrofitted, factoring them in during the design phase of a commercial kitchen can save time and money over the long-term. Industry professionals can survey a commercial kitchen site and suggest appropriate solutions before any installations take place.
5. Go with experience
There is no room for inexperience with fire-suppression system suppliers given the highly flammable nature of commercial kitchens. A fire can quickly destroy a building, so poor installation of safety systems can come at great cost.
Restaurateurs or site managers should grill potential suppliers on the systems they supply and how they meet all relevant building codes and regulations.
With the right systems and installers, the risk of a serious blaze is seriously diminished – allowing a restaurant to focus on food rather than fires.
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.