Fire risk assessments are extremely important in every business. In 2004, 38 people were killed in fires in non domestic buildings and over 1300 people were injured. Out of the 33,400 fires at commercial properties many of those businesses failed to re open due to the high costs involved in repairing the damage. So what is the best way to reduce the risk of fires spreading in your kitchen?
Carry out regular risk assessments
Fires can be so devastating to a business. It takes seconds for a fire to take a hold of a building, introducing precautions to prevent fires from starting and spreading is key for the safety of staff and customers. To ensure that all health and safety matters are resolved in a timely and effective manner it is important to have a manger who is responsible for carrying out risk assessments. They should be responsible for identifying the risks and putting procedures in place to either reduce the or remove the danger from the premises.
Regular cleans of extract systems
If a fire does take hold within a commercial kitchen, it is important to have plans in place to restrict the growth of the fire. One of the ways this can be achieved is to have your ducting regularly cleaned. In cases where fires have reached the ducting the flames have spread rapidly due to the extract system containing thick flammable grease. To make matters worse, majority of ducting (especially in hotels) runs through the building thus spreading the fire throughout the building.
Click here to find out what the London fire brigade says about catering kitchen extract cleaning.
Fire fighting equipment
The responsible person should ensure there is an appropriate amount of fire fighting equipment within the building. All equipment must be sufficiently maintained and inspected on a regular basis. Staff should be educated on how and when to use fire fighting equipment to tackle small fires.
Cater Clean 24 Seven are a BESA accredited company, offering specialist and professional extract system cleaning. Helping our customers to stay safe and compliant.
Contact Cater Clean 24 Seven on 0870 300 3232 for more information on how we can help keep your extract system safe.