Business and Personal Lives Can Be Devastated By the Consequences of Commercial Kitchen Fires

Copyright (c) 2012 Alison Withers

The most recent UK Government figures for the number of fires in restaurants, cafes and public houses are for 2010/11 and total more than 2,000, with one such incident happening every nine days according to the Fire Service.

However, what these figures do not reveal is the consequences to the businesses that have suffered them and also to other people involved.

If the catering establishment is in a built up location, as happened in June 2012 in a historic town in East Anglia, a serious fire can affect neighboring businesses. Coming up to four weeks after this particular incident, three neighbouring businesses have still not been able to resume trading while work continues to dismantle the unsafe structure left by the fire, complicated by the fact that the restaurant concerned was in a listed building.

There are a lot of consequences that may not be covered by the insurance policy, including the loss of income to the business itself and its affected neighbours, the cost of covering staff salaries while repair work is carried out and the business is closed, the repair work itself and in the worst cases personal injury.

More seriously, however, if the seat of the fire in subsequent investigation is found to have been in the kitchen extraction ductwork and it can be shown that there had been no, or inadequate kitchen extract cleaning, not only will the insurers not pay out on a claim, but the owner may risk prosecution.

Under the corporate manslaughter legislation if, for example, a fire fighter dies while tackling such a blaze then failures in applying Health and Safety legislation such as not having extraction cleaning carried out, can result in prosecution of the owner.

It is estimated that fires in catering establishments are often 25% worse than they need to be where there has been little or no kitchen extraction cleaning.

This is because of grease deposits in the ductwork and telltale signs that maintenance and cleaning of an extraction system have been neglected are grease deposits on canopy filters above the cookers and also at the point where the extraction system exits the building.

Fires need three things, a point of ignition such as a flame on a cooker hob, fuel, such as grease and oxygen to help it to spread. These are all vulnerable points in a commercial kitchen extraction system.

The Heating and Ventilation Contractors Association (now renamed the B&SE) argues that another telltale sign of the likelihood of inadequate or no cleaning is where there are either no or too small access points to the extraction system.

Ideally, it says, access doors should be located at least every three metres and on both sides of air turning vanes, ditto of sound attenuators, volume control dampers, and fan units, as well as at changes of direction in ductwork.

Given all this evidence owners of catering establishments can greatly reduce the expensive risks of a fire destroying their livelihood and the livelihoods of others if it puts in place a proper thorough and professional kitchen extract cleaning regime.


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Business insurance may not cover personal injury, loss of business and staffing costs during closure and repairs themselves and may be invalidated if the cause of a commercial kitchen fire is found to be failure to carry out extraction cleaning. By Ali Withers. http://www.pro-ductclean.com/kitchen-extract-cleaning.asp



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