In a commercial restaurant kitchen, grease is a fact of life.
Unfortunately, along with it comes an increased risk of fire resulting in property damage and injury, even in the cleanest facilities that work hard to maintain their ranges, cooktops and hoods. Commercial kitchen cleaning requires more than just practicing good stove hood fire prevention procedures.cooking equipmentFact: U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 7,410 structure fires per year in eating and drinking establishments between 2010 and 2014.*
Fact: These fires caused average annual losses of three civilian deaths, 110 civilian injuries, and $165 million in direct property damage each year.
Fact: Three out of five (61%) of these fires involved cooking equipment.
*These estimates are based on data from the U.S. Fire Administration’s (USFA’s) National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA’s) annual fire department experience survey.
When we drill down on these statistics we see that in more than 61% of these incidents, the leading cause of fire linked back to cooking equipment, including ranges, cooktops and hoods. Drilling down even further, it is revealed that 22% of these fires had “a failure to clean” as a factor resulting in the fire and damage. When equipment catches fire, it can lead to hood and ductwork fires, which can quickly spiral out of control if that is unclean as well. Performance Industrial is a leader in cooking equipment cleaning and commercial kitchen exhaust cleaning in Upstate New York and Massachusetts, providing your facility with a full cleaning to the bare-metal from the hood to the roof vent.Commercial Kitchen Cleaning Fire Prevention
Fires related to commercial cooking equipment, hoods, and ductwork can be prevented. Keeping kitchen exhaust and ductwork clean is the number one measure required to maintain a safe environment. Washing the ductwork in a large commercial kitchen simply is not enough; a complete and thorough cleaning requires a certified contractor with experience in kitchen exhaust and hood system inspections and bare-metal cleaning. The National Restaurant Association offers tips in this Fire Prevention 101 article, citing preventative maintenance and staff training as two major components in a complete restaurant kitchen safety program. The facts are clear: nothing can replace a thorough, professional inspection and commercial kitchen cleaning practices to prevent possible fire hazards.IKECA Professional Exhaust Cleaning Technicians
At Performance Industrial, we follow and exceed rigorous cleaning, safety and performance standards:
The Performance Industrial kitchen crews all have Professional Exhaust Cleaning Technicians with the designations to work in both New York State and Massachusetts.- Our certified technicians earned their designation directly through PECT, a pre-certification program designed to expose crew members and employees to the codes and practices required by IKECA, including in-depth testing of the NFPA-96 standards.
- In addition to PECT, we have team members who are Certified Exhaust Cleaning Technicians (CECT) as well as Certified Exhaust Cleaning Specialists. All certified through the IKECA.