22nd January, 2020

Protect Your Commercial Kitchen from Fire

Chef cooking at Mrs Brown's Bar and Kitchen Brisbane

We all know that it gets hot in a kitchen – but in a commercial kitchen it gets hotter than a residential kitchen could ever imagine! With multiple burners going at the maximum temperature constantly, ovens always on, deep fryers and wood burning pizza ovens, your chefs aren’t going to be the only ones breaking a sweat!

Your commercial kitchen needs to be built to a certain level safety standards to ensure that your kitchen is safe for you, your staff and patrons too.

When you’re fitting out your commercial kitchen (or renovating it), business owners are thinking about the best appliances to maximise efficiency, however safety needs to come first – always.

What is Most Likely to Cause a Commercial Kitchen Fire?

In a commercial kitchen, the culprit for fires is often grease. Your kitchen has lots of appliances, grease and heat – one small fire can get out of hand fast. The worst part of a grease fire is that it can’t be put out with water. Dousing with water may be your first reaction, but water will just spread grease flames causing more damage and possible injury or worse.

TYou need to provide proper training to your kitchen staff on how to deal with and identify different types of fires. But you also need to provide them the right tools.

What You Need to Prevent & Put Out Commercial Fires

When it comes to setting up your business for fire protection, as a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure that you know your fire risk. And we’ve found in our time that while fire safety is initially installed and set up to correspond with legal standards, it’s often quickly forgotten about.

Do you know the answers to the following fire safety questions? 

  1. Where is your evacuation plan displayed? And when was the last time you had a fire drill?
  2. Do you have an emergency plan?
  3. When were your fire extinguishers purchased? And where are they? 
  4. When was the last time you tested your fire alarms? 

Scroll to the bottom of this article to learn what your answers should be!

Prevent Commercial Kitchen Fires With the Right Fire Protection System

When you’re setting up a commercial kitchen, you need a fire protection system that works to keep your business and staff safe. The best thing that you can do for your commercial kitchen is to install a wet chemical system like an Ansul Cabinet, and not a water mist system – which can just exacerbate certain types of fires (such as grease!) in your kitchen.

A wet (non-toxic) chemical agent not only puts fires out, but the chemical reaction with the flames will cause the agent to smother, and prevent the flames from reigniting. It’s a fast and reliable system that is safe to use around food.

At Emu Plumbing, we work with Flame Control Industries, a Brisbane-based company that installs and maintains fire suppression equipment to keep your staff and business safe. They know the right types of suppression to use, where to place the systems and what you’ll need for the size of your business. These systems are installed with automatic gas isolation valves to eliminate the risk of further inflammation in case of emergency. Emu Plumbing provides the gasfitting design, supplies & connections as required, customised to suit your application.

Prevention is better than cure – so you need a team of experts to recommend and install the very best quality fire protection system for your business to stop any fire before it can even start.

Protect your commercial kitchen from fire and keep your business and staff safe.

Give us a call today on 07 3358 3201 or request a quote online.

 

Is Your Commercial Kitchen Protected From fire?

  1. Fire drills should be practiced annually to ensure that all staff are aware of evacuation plans and meeting points. The evacuation map must be prominently displayed in an area all staff can access.
  2. Under section 43 of the Workplace Health & Safety Regulations, an employer must prepare and maintain an emergency plan which includes:
    1. Evacuation procedures Notification of emergency services
    2. Medical treatment
    3. Effective communications
    4. Testing of emergency procedures
    5. Information, training and instruction to workers in relation to implementing the emergency procedures 

    Along with an emergency plan, you’ll need to assign roles and responsibilities to your staff so that everyone knows what they need to do in case of fire. From head counts, to calling the fire department and communicating with patrons, when everyone knows their role, there’s a far lower risk that anyone will be injured.

  3. Your fire extinguishers must be clearly marked as to which class of fire they extinguish – and your staff needs to know this too. They should be located by the entry to the kitchen, not inside. This is to ensure that those going to use the extinguisher are always walking away from the fire and don’t need to go past or through it.
  4. Smoke alarms must be tested at least every 12 months. You can hire a smoke alarm servicing company to regularly test your alarms, replace batteries and book you in for the next service so you don’t have to worry about it.
  • “Well organised, efficient and competitively priced.”

    Have been using Tony Bonehill & his team from Emu Plumbing for a number of years and have no hesitation in recommending them for all types of plumbing works. I manage a large property portfolio, and I need to be able to rely on my tradespeople, and I never have to second guess using Emu Plumbing. They are well organised, efficient & competitively priced!

    Toni J
  • “Quick, knowledgeable and competitive on price.”

    I have been in this industry now for more than 25 years across a number of different venues and was introduced to Tony and his team by another friend that owns and runs a restaurant in Brisbane. For more than the last five years he has been one of our top trade contacts, and I would recommend Emu to anyone that is interested in getting the job done right the first time.

    They are always on time, and they are clean and tidy workers (which is essential in a commercial kitchen). They clean up, take photos of the work completed and are always happy to do a quick site check to see if anything else may need attention in the future. Quick, knowledgeable and competitive on price.

    Nick P, Malt Group
  • “High standard of service and prompt response.”

    I would highly recommend Emu Plumbing to any Strata Scheme looking for an outstanding Maintenance Plumber. Their expertise, high standard of service and prompt response is why I have continued to use Emu Plumbing for all our plumbing issues.

    John T, AD Body Corporate
  • “Efficient processes, quality workmanship and quick turnaround.”

    Efficient processes, quality workmanship and quick turnaround, is why we at Sikorsky Helitech, a Lockheed Martin company, choose Emu Plumbing for all our plumbing services. In the Commercial world, downtime means money, so it is very important to our company that we have trades that understand an urgent “Call to Action” like Emu Plumbing.

    Paul C, Sikorsky Helitech
  • “Emu plumbing is the market leader”

    Precision Aviation Group Australia uses Emu Plumbing for all plumbing and gas fitting requirements that arise on site.

    Tony and his team leave no stone unturned in their support of our needs. They go above and beyond to ensure that the time frames and quality of the work are to the highest level and they continue with the customer comes first attitude when the work is complete. For any commercial plumbing or gas fitting requirements, Emu plumbing is the market leader.

    Chris S, Precision Aviation
  • “The best plumbers I have worked with, they never let me down.”

    I have worked with Tony and the Emu Plumbing Team over nearly 4 years. The level of professionalism, and most importantly honesty and integrity that the Team delivers every day is outstanding. Tony is always available for advice over the phone to our Tenants and Landlords.

    I would recommend Tony and the Emu Team as the best plumbers I have worked with, and they have never let me down. Now that is something that is hard to find!

    Stephanie C
  • “Very happy to recommend Emu Plumbing”

    I have had the pleasure of using Emu Plumbing several times. On all occasions they have been very helpful, informative and prompt, with their advice and service. The work they have carried out has always been completed reliably as promised and very professionally. Very happy to recommend Emu Plumbing.

    Ian D
  • “I have no hesitation in recommending the Emu Plumbing team.”

    A huge thank you to Tony, Al and Bryce for helping us get Mrs Brown’s Bar & Kitchen up and running! You’ve been incredible, and we’re very appreciative of your efforts, which went above and beyond the norm on many occasions. We used lots of second-hand and re-purposed items during our fit-out, and nothing was straightforward – but nothing was ever a problem for the boys. I have no hesitation in recommending the Emu Plumbing team, and am glad they’re part of ours.

     

    Ben B, Mrs Brown’s Bar & Kitchen
  • “Fast responses, extremely polite, and honest work”

    The team at Emu plumbing never fail to impress. Tony, Niles, Eli and Joseph are all beyond excellent in their work. Fast responses, extremely polite, and honest work. They’re very thorough and take time to explain situations to make sure everyone understands what is being done and why, they hold a great attention to detail and always clean up after themselves. I can’t recommend Emu enough.

    Thank you guys!

    Airport Hacienda Motel
  • “Prompt and excellent service!”

    I moved into a new unit to find no water was flowing through the pipes. My property manager sent Eric from Emu Plumbing who fixed the matter quickly.

    Someone turned off my water supply last night as water from my unit was leaking downstairs into the foyer! Along came Eric who again fixed the problem of my laundry taps and he even left ‘who gives a crap’ toilet paper. Fantastic!!

    Prompt and excellent service from your company – Eric was polite and efficient.

    Ronda D, Property Managed by Place New Farm
  • “The whole process from the quoting and booking to the completion of the job was effortless”

    Had the guys out doing storm water pipes for my new shed. 
    Very knowledgeable guys who did a great job. The whole process from the quoting and booking to the completion of the job was effortless!! Fantastic team. Highly recommended!

    Brad S
  • “They did a very thorough, excellent job, with photographic evidence, were very reasonably priced and very professional”

    I needed to call an emergency plumber on a Saturday afternoon for issues at the office where I work in Kingsford Smith Drive in Eagle Farm. I called two local after-hours plumbers without success. Emu answered on the first ring although already busy with a job down the road. They estimated they would be finished with the current job and would be at the office by 4.30 pm which they were. They did a very thorough, excellent job, with photographic evidence, were very reasonably priced and very professional/ I would highly recommend them and use their services again without hesitation.

    Teresa S, Odyssey Gaming
  • “Will use you guys again for sure”

    Very happy with your service and the work done…  will use you guys again for sure.

    Wayne W, Equipment Finance and Leasing
  • “I would recommend”

    Efficient, reliable and friendly service. I would recommend Emu plumbing!
    ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
    Chris A, Waterstop Solutions QLD
  • “The boys deserve some high praise”

    I just wanted to let you know what a good job your young lads did. We’re very happy with the result. The boys deserve some high praise – so efficient, thoughtful, pleasant and a work ethic to be treasured.

    Betty M
  • “Absolutely amazing and very helpful”

    We were in a situation where we needed a gas technician to come and assess if there was a gas leak at our property where a previous technician has disconnected our gas cylinder and therefore had no gas for hot showers etc. The team at Emu were absolutely amazing and very helpful when I rang them and told them about our situation. A technician was organised to come out and he managed to fix the problem.

    It’s nice to know that humanity still exists and that they helped as soon as they could, at a reasonable price too! A huge Thank You to the great team at Emu (Shakira, Nials and Tony), we will definitely recommend your business to others as well!

    ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

    Szandra P
  • “We really appreciate the way he went about his business before, during and especially after”

    Today we had Tyler from Emu Plumbing come out to our address in Coorparoo. He was courteous, helpful and fixed our issue without to much fuss.

    But what impressed us the most is the fact he cleaned up the mess created and went the extra yard to leave our site spotless. We really appreciate the way he went about his business before, during and especially after.

    Later that night, we had the guys from Urban Utilities to fix up the issue in the mains. They even commented on how the plumber cleaned. Thanks Tyler!

    ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

    Tony W

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