The stats around commercial kitchen fires paint a damning picture.
There were an estimated 889 kitchen fires in commercial buildings in the UK in 2021/22—that’s more than two every single day—and these fires caused an estimated £200 million in damage to property.
If you operate a commercial kitchen, don’t let it become a statistic.
Protect it and the people in it by following the below tips from Alex MacArthur, director at North West Fire Solutions.
In this article
The most common fire safety risks in commercial kitchens
How fires can start in commercial kitchens
Types of equipment that pose a high fire risk
Legislation the reader needs to know about
The role of training in reducing fire risk
How kitchen operators can manage fire safety risks
How North West Fire Solutions can support you
What are the most common fire safety risks in commercial kitchens?
As the reader will know, commercial kitchens contain a lot of heavy-duty, higher-grade equipment that’s on for most of the day and poses a clear fire risk if not handled with care.
An obvious fire risk in commercial kitchens is the build-up of grease and cooking oil, particularly over time in places like canopies, filters, and ductwork. Essentially, this is fuel for a potential fire. If there’s an ignition source nearby—which clearly there is in a commercial kitchen—then that fire will spread quickly.
Hand in hand with that, you’ve got high-heat cooking processes, i.e., you could be frying or cooking with woks, causing the flames to go high in the form of a flare-up. It’s surprisingly easy for a fire to get out of hand in those situations.
Quite often, commercial kitchens aren’t maintained properly. For example, the extraction is poor, or there isn’t a good cleaning regime in place. This is what causes a build-up of grease and cooking oil in your filters and ductwork.
Most modern kitchens will contain gas appliances, so it’s important that your gas systems are maintained and serviced properly.
Electrical faults are another major fire risk in commercial kitchens. As so much modern equipment relies on electrical units, you need to be super-vigilant and make sure your equipment is being regularly maintained and serviced. It’s very easy for sockets to become overloaded and for electrical leads to get damaged over time.
Any combustible materials or cleaning chemicals—or simple items like tea towels and packaging—must be stored safely so that they don’t pose a risk.
How might fires typically start in these types of environments?
We know commercial kitchens tend to be very busy, high-pressured environments, and it’s easy for some people to not pay attention to what they’re doing and take shortcuts.
Maybe they’ve taken the servicing and maintenance of their equipment lightly in the past.
Maybe they’ve got new staff who are not up to speed with policies and procedures, and if they’re on-site, it’s easy for a fire to go unnoticed and spiral out of control.
Ultimately, it comes down to people not watching what they’re doing and not having received proper training.
If you’ve got new members of staff, they must be aware of your fire safety policies and procedures and know what’s happening on your premises. It’s really important that your operation is as slick as possible and you’ve done everything you can to stop a potential fire from getting out of control.
As we’ve seen all too often, when a fire does get out of control, it can be an absolute disaster.
Which types of equipment pose a higher fire risk in commercial kitchens?
Any equipment that creates a high radiant heat or involves hot oil or grease poses a higher level of risk.
Deep fat fryers are the most obvious example of this. Whether they’re in a chip shop or restaurant, if they’re frying a lot of food items and switched on throughout the day, they really do need to be regularly cleaned and adequately maintained.
Equipment such as range ovens and pizza ovens pose a high risk, too, as they have an open flame. If this open flame were to combine with any kind of grease or some form of flare-up-style cooking, this would heighten the risk of a fire breaking out.
You’ve also got to consider the spread of fire and how quickly it could potentially travel. If your extraction system hasn’t been serviced correctly, this could lead to massive damage, as there’s nothing to stop the fire and smoke from being transported throughout the building.
Although much of the equipment in commercial kitchens is high-end, commercial grade, and expensive, it still needs to be properly cleaned and maintained. I cannot emphasise this point enough.
What legislation does the reader need to be aware of?
There are two pieces of legislation which are essential for commercial kitchen operators and managing agents to know about.
The main piece of legislation, which we always point clients back to, is The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This is the main piece of legislation governing fire safety in buildings in England and Wales.
Under this legislation, the “responsible person” in a commercial kitchen, such as the employer, owner, or occupier, must ensure they have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment in place. They must also take the proper fire precautions by enforcing the correct procedures and overseeing staff training and equipment maintenance.
The other key piece of legislation, which a lot of people aren’t aware of, is The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR).
A separate assessment is required for this legislation, which comes into play when you’ve got flammable gases, vapours, aerosols, liquids, or any kind of flammable substances on-site.
If you’re reading this, and you’ve not come across DSEAR before, you need to look into it.
If you don’t, if you’re not on top of this, then you could find yourself open to enforcement. Not only would this reflect negatively on you as an individual, but it would also affect your business. The real-world consequences can be absolutely catastrophic.
What role does training play in reducing fire risk in commercial kitchens?
Fire safety training is key because it’s quite likely that a fire is going to start following human error or some kind of human input.
Ensuring that staff know how to prevent fires in the first place is obviously a great start, but they also need to know what to do in the event of a fire. Those first 30 seconds and how people respond in that timeframe are critical, whether that’s through raising an alarm, isolating equipment, or turning off the gas and electricity.
Training kitchen staff on how to use firefighting appliances such as extinguishers or blankets, and teaching them when to just leave the fire and walk away, is key.
These days, people have to own their individual responsibilities much more than in the past when it comes to fire safety. They need to understand the basic principles of general fire safety, the immediate policies and procedures for their premises, and their role within these policies and procedures.
Too often, training is generic and seen as a tick-box exercise to meet compliance needs. It’s not specific to the premises and the specific challenges within it.
New starters often get overlooked and don’t receive an induction. Even people who’ve worked in a premises for a long time don’t receive any refresher training.
People whose first language isn’t English aren’t accounted for. There’s no drills. The list goes on.
So many vital elements get overlooked, which is why we provide comprehensive fire safety training that’s tailored to your premises and ensures your staff are able to react competently and correctly in the event of a fire.
What steps can commercial kitchen operators take to manage the fire safety risks on their premises?
You must make sure you review your fire risk assessment regularly, ideally at least once a year.
You need to constantly have fire safety at the forefront of your mind, regardless of business activities.
It could be something as simple as changing your menu, which means introducing new cooking processes and using different equipment. You may change how you run your business and the services you’re delivering, or you may recruit new staff, or you might change the layout of your premises.
Whatever goes on, you must ensure that your fire assessment is suitable, sufficient, and reflects what you’re doing on a daily basis.
It’s essential that you’ve got consistent regimes in place across the board as well.
For example:
- Making sure your extraction equipment is cleaned and tested regularly.
- Making sure your gas and electrical appliances are serviced regularly.
- Keeping combustible materials away from heat.
- Storing products like oils and cleaning equipment correctly and safely.
- Making sure any contractors on site are working safely and understand the equipment and the risks surrounding them.
- If things do go wrong, or things do need to be reviewed, making sure that the policies or procedures are updated accordingly and everyone’s aware of them.
How we help commercial kitchen operators improve fire safety and remain compliant
As explained, you must have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment in place at all times.
Failing to do this could result in catastrophic building and equipment damage, serious injuries or loss of life in the worst-case scenarios.
If you haven’t reviewed your assessment in the last 12 months, now is the time to do so.
The good news is that fire risk assessments are our absolute bread and butter.
We will help you stay compliant and make sure you have an assessment that’s up-to-date, fit for purpose, and bespoke for your commercial kitchen.
To book a site visit or ask us any questions relating to fire safety, call us on 0151 665 0124 or email info@nwfiresolutions.co.uk