Choosing a Fire Suppression System for Restaurants

The kitchen is the heart of any restaurants. It’s where delicious dishes are cooked and expertly crafted. Meals that patrons travel to are created by talented chefs and their team in the kitchen.

However, where there is fire comes the risk of fire accidents.

Thus, it’s essential to know what restaurant fire suppression systems options you have and what’s best to invest in.

Fire Accidents in Restaurants

Fire accidents more commonly occur in restaurants than in any other type of business. Regular exposure to heat causes fires to break out for many different reasons.

While it’s essential to know the common causes of fire so you can proactively work to prevent it, knowing what restaurant fire suppression systems available to you is just as critical.

Grease fire spreads more rapidly with water. So water is not the ingredient you’d want to include in your restaurant fire suppression systems.

Grease fire spreads rapidly when doused with water

Fire extinguishers, on the other hand, may unnecessarily damage the food and other perishable items you have in the kitchen...

Fire suppression systems, specifically for restaurants, provide a unique way of suppressing restaurant and kitchen fires – quickly and effectively.

Are You a Restaurant Owner?

Whether you’re just starting to venture into the food and restaurant business or you’re already an established restaurateur, restaurant fire suppression systems are a great asset when it comes to protecting your restaurant business.

Restaurant Fires Can Be Contained

The National Restaurant Association reports that almost 60 percent of restaurant and kitchen fires practically always result from cooking equipment mishaps. This source of fire allows you to contain it with a suppression system in place.

Fire suppression systems for restaurants are an essential tool to have in the kitchen.

While fire prevention training and education and placing fire extinguishers throughout your restaurant are essential, having a restaurant fire suppression system installed within your premises can significantly cut down the possibility of fire accidents developing.

Your First Line of Defense

Restaurant fire suppression systems are a restaurant’s fire line of defense against fires. However, to fully utilize the systems, you must familiarize yourself and your restaurant staff with the basics of it.

The Basics

There are different brands of fire suppression systems. And these brands come with their own sets of features. Generally, there the basic components always present in every system.

Restaurant fire suppression systems typically connect to a range hood of each cooking station along with the gas line running through it. If the system is tripped, the gas line immediately shuts off, stopping the source of the fire.

However, if it’s a grease fire, then the remaining flames may continue to grow and spread. Thus, there’s another component to fire suppression systems that address this issue. There are nozzles placed within the ventilation system’s hood over the cooking station. When alerted, the nozzles release a fire suppressant agent.

This fire suppressant material is a water-based chemical agent explicitly crafted to put out grease fires. Since extinguished fires cause a lot of smoke, the hood works hard to eliminate all the smoke in the kitchen.

Manual Options

Fire suppression systems for restaurants are generally easy to operate. Similar to sprinkler systems installed throughout commercial establishments, fire suppression systems at restaurants get activated upon detection of flames and developing heat.

Fire detection may be different for each suppression system. Thus, make sure to discuss this topic with your fire suppression system provider. Generally, the approach for any suppression system involves: quickly eliminating the fire source while extinguishing the flames.

This approach helps keep the losses to a minimum, with the food items only on the affected cooking surface or area affected.

Manual activation also comes as an excellent option for restaurant fire suppression. Much like with sprinkler systems installed, if the trigger is not tripped, then the nozzle component will not get activated unless the fire has already spread past the cooking area.

A Safety Precaution

Restaurant kitchen fires can rapidly burn and spread out of control. Since most restaurant kitchen fires start on the cooking station or surface, having a suppression system installed that can kill the flames with no need to shut down the kitchen operations is a notable advantage.

Other kitchen staff members can address the issue and get back to work when they’re ready, and the customers won’t need to get involved.