It is a Friday evening at your restaurant, and it is jumping, reservations are booked, the bar is full, there is not an open seat available, your restaurant is full of happy, cheerful patrons enjoying your best dishes. Your halfway through the dinner service when a fire breaks out in the kitchen, the alarms go off and smoke starts billowing out into the dining area. Your guest starts panicking and fleeing the building. This seems farfetched, right? Well, that is not so. Did you know there are an estimated 7,410 structure fires in eating and drinking establishments annually? Furthermore, cooking equipment was the leading cause of fires in these properties, accounting for three out of five fires. If you add to this danger, dirty kitchen exhaust hoods the result will be a devasting catastrophe to your restaurant. This is why it is extremely important to deep clean your appliances on a reoccurring basis.
One of the leading causes of kitchen fires is fryers. It is reported that the fryer appliance accounts for one of five fires (21%) while ranges or cooktops were involved in 14% of fires.
So, why are fryers one of the leading causes of a restaurant fire? How can I help prevent this from happening to me? One major reason for a fryer fire is grease buildup in the fryer’s exhaust flue. Most deep fryers have a flue gas exhaust vent for the heat from the burner elements, which goes up the back of the unit behind the oil vat. Hardened grease often builds up here and becomes a fuel that is a breeding ground for fire.
Here is an example of a fryer exhaust flue catching on fire due to grease build up on the flue
and consistent extreme operating conditions.
Nightly cleanings alone are not enough to prevent a fryer appliance fire.
For this reason, NFPA 96 has created the following codes.
- 11.7.1 states Inspection and servicing of the cooking equipment shall be made at least annually by professionally trained and qualified persons.
- 11.7.2 Cooking equipment that collects grease below the surface, behind the equipment, or in cooking equipment flue gas exhaust, such as griddle or charbroilers shall be inspected and if found with grease accumulation, cleaned by a
professionally trained, qualified, and certified person (s) acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction.
At SDI deep fryers are completely dissembled by our trained technicians in order to completely remove the fire-causing grease and return the appliance back to its original operating state. Exhaust flues are removed, oil vats are chemically cleaned, the cabinet and components are thoroughly cleaned. Deep cleaning not only returns the deep fryer to a fire-safe condition but it
also looks amazing as well
SDI has over 30 years of experience in all your commercial kitchen cleaning needs, including commercial appliance deep cleaning, IKECA certified commercial kitchen exhaust hood system cleaning, and complete kitchen cleaning of the ceiling, walls, floors. Call SDI today for a free quote!
