Ensuring safety at a facility level is complex. Building owners need a protection plan that covers not only anti- intrusion, but fire prevention too. One more fire and life safety area that tends to be sacrificed due to finite resources and limited bandwidth is the workplace kitchen.
The office kitchen has become a more frequently and unfortunately more overlooked aspect of fire and life safety in the workplace. But in any commercial kitchen, it can’t be overlooked and should always be a concern.
Fires in nonresidential buildings are also reported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who attributes “about 30%” of these fires to cooking equipment. Because so many fires begin in office kitchens, it is essential for employees to not only know office kitchen safety best practices, but also to actively follow them.
How to Prevent Office Kitchen Fires
In order to reduce the chances of an office kitchen fire occurring, building owners and managers must develop a companywide fire and life safety culture.
Failure to properly implement safety measures can result in a workplace kitchen office fire that destroys significant business documents, shuttering the business and resulting in property damage and loss of profits for decades or in some cases, even endangering lives.
It’s unlikely that the risk of office kitchen fires can be entirely eliminated. However, building owners and managers who take the initiative to consult with a fire and life safety service provider to create and integrate an office kitchen protection plan into their building will be in a better position to respond if and when these situations arise.
The following outlines the top best practices businesses should implement to reduce fire risks in an office kitchen.
Install and Maintain Proper Fire Protection Devices
The best course of action for companies interested in strengthening defenses against the fire hazards in workplace kitchens is to have licensed professionals install and service the appropriate fire protection devices including kitchen fire suppression systems, fire alarms, fire sprinklers, and fire extinguishers.
A good fire and life safety service provider will seek to build a custom fire protection plan that transitions the antiquated or obsolete systems into newer more efficient systems, typically suggested by the local AHJ.
A reputable life and fire safety service contractor will perform preventative maintenance and inspections to ensure equipment is fully functional at the times when offices really need them to function.
Implement Employee Fire Extinguisher Training
The greatest form of disaster preparation is to recognize and have the acceptance that they exist in the first place. Fires in the workplace kitchen will and do happen for the simple reason that even the most conscientious worker can inadvertently cause a fire.
As long as automation has not completely replaced human personnel, one can be sure that the cost of training workers to use fire extinguishers will be valuable to business owners and managers.
Along with enacting a complete training plan that incorporates employee training on the use of fire extinguishers, building owners and managers must also work with their fire and life safety services consultant to ensure their buildings are properly equipped with adequate fire extinguishers, which are not only the proper type but also appropriately located, fully- charged, and in efficient working order.
Never Leave Cooking Food Unattended
Though this may be obvious to some employees, it is important to realize that fire safety does not always have people’s minds or is not a priority that is taken for granted. Hence it is important to remind employees to ensure that food and their surroundings are always under their vigilant watch.
For example, frozen dinners and popcorn are common causes of workplace kitchen fires, because these items tend to burn. Posters in the workplace, in conjunction with an already existing fire and life safety culture, will help to reinforce the importance of staying by microwaves, stoves, or any other food preparation equipment while food is cooking.
Regularly Check Appliances and Power Cords for Damage
Recalls on kitchen appliances should be checked on proactively to avoid workplace kitchen fires. This includes things like registering equipment in a timely manner when they purchase it, and maintaining a listing of the registrations. This list will help you have quick access to information on unsafe or unsafe products so that your kitchen appliances won’t be at higher risk of fire.
Organizations should also ensure power cords are regularly checked. Uncovered power cords and fires in the workplace kitchen can get out of control. Employees can prevent this from becoming a hazard by ensuring that damaged power cords, worn out or frayed cords are replaced before these conditions can lead to hazard. Outside of keeping an eye on power cords, organizations can also implement these suggestions to minimize the ever-present threat of power cords and make kitchens safer:
- Avoid using extension cords.
- Plug kitchen appliances directly into outlets to eliminate one possible point of failure.
- Instruct staff to unplug small appliances when not in use.
- Always test that electrical plugs and wiring in the kitchen are functional.
- Train staff to recognize if power cords are damaged and how to report for maintenance.
Consistently Clean Appliances
The best practice to avoiding kitchen fires in the first place is simply clean kitchens. This would include taking the initiative to clean all of the kitchen appliances. Instilling the notion to clean up not just after oneself, but to take responsibility for the common office/kitchen space will decrease the instances of fire emergencies. Here are the most frequent causes of office kitchen fires that building owners, managers, and employees should be aware of:
- Food spills – crumbs, baked goods, popcorn kernels etc .
- Oil stains
- Excess oil
Protecting Your Office Kitchen from Fire Hazards
Habitual not changing is the key factor to work place kitchens safety. The companies that emphasize, instill and integrate fire and life safety best practices into the culture of their offices will be better positioned to handle fire and life safety emergencies when they do inevitably arise.
All businesses should be working with a fire and life safety service provider to develop an office kitchen protection plan to keep the building – and most importantly, those in it – safe.