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Some restaurant owners and managers may wonder why the U.S. government requires them to periodically clean their exhaust systems. This blog post aims to answer that question with an unfortunate incident in Tulsa a few days ago.

On Monday morning, a pizza restaurant in the southern part of the city caught fire.  As of this writing, the cause of the fire is yet to be determined, but pay attention to this key passage in the story:

The flames spread halfway down the building but were mainly contained to the roof and attic.

Some people may ask how a fire can start in the attic of a building, but anyone who knows how restaurant kitchens are designed understands why this can happen.  Restaurant exhaust systems pull a lot of grease from the stove upwards into the vent hood, the exhaust ducts and grease fan in the top of the building.  Like any grease, it’s flammable.  If enough of it builds up, it can be a severe fire hazard.  Hence, the federal requirement for periodic exhaust system cleaning.

In this particular case, nobody was injured, but the damage wasn’t contained to the restaurant itself.  Because the restaurant is part of a strip center, neighboring offices and stores were filled with smoke from the fire.

(To be clear, we’re not saying that the pizza restaurant in question had fallen behind on its cleaning schedule.  We have no way of knowing this for certain, and we’re not about to speculate.  We’re simply saying that restaurant exhaust systems can present a fire hazard.)

If you are a restaurant owner, don’t let this happen to you!  Give us a call today and we’ll give you an estimate on cleaning your exhaust system.

Some restaurant owners may wonder why cleaning their vent hoods and keeping their exhaust ducts clean is so important.  An incident from late last week helps illustrate why.

According to the account in the Vicksburg Post, a Burger King in Mississippi caught fire and damaged the kitchen rather badly (the restaurant is closed until repairs are completed).  It started when an employee was cleaning grease from one of the stoves when the grease caught fire.  This part is worth noting:

Vicksburg Fire Chief Craig Danczyk said…the fire managed to get in the vent fan and duct work in the kitchen, adding greasy residue from the kitchen helped the fire expand into the ceiling and roof areas. Firefighters had to get on the building’s roof to get to the fire after it entered the ductwork. (emphasis added)

This is why cleaning your restaurant ventilation is so important.  All that grease from the stove doesn’t stay on the stove – some of it also gets sucked up into the ventilation system, into the ducts and onto the fan itself.  If your ventilation system isn’t cleaned regularly as required by state law,

It could have been really extensive in the case of this Burger King restaurant.  Do the math: many fast food restaurants open at 6:00 am or earlier, and don’t close until 10:00 pm or later.  That kitchen could easily have been running 16 hours per day, and maybe more.   That makes for a lot of grease getting pulled up into that ventilation system.  And as illustrated, it doesn’t take much for a grease fire to spread rapidly.

(As a side note, we aren’t saying they failed to have their ventilation system cleaned properly – the article doesn’t say one way or the other, and it would be pure speculation on our part.  We’re just saying that it’s critical to have your restaurant ventilation system cleaned regularly.)

Here’s the bottom line: a poorly cleaned restaurant ventilation system is a fire hazard.  Left unaddressed, it can cause tremendous damage and even fatalities.  If yours is in need of cleaning, we can help!  Contact us today for a quote.