Case studies of kitchen accidents in different situations

According to statistics in the United States, between 2006 and 2010 there were 317,700 fires, approximately 2,590 deaths and property damage of more than $720 million caused by the burning of cooking oil. It was sparking from dirty soot deposits in the range hood.

Many researchers have done research on kitchen safety, for example:

Wei Tongtong, analyzed the fire hazard characteristics / Chen Touqi , studied the effect and mechanism of smoke exhaust fires caused by kitchen fires at various points by simulating the process of kitchen fires.

• Oil 1.5 litre in a pan starts to burn at 1 minute 15 seconds,
• The hood will start to ignite at 1 minute 25 seconds,
• The hood will stop working after 2 minutes,
• At 2 minutes and 30 seconds, almost all the materials in the kitchen will burn. Until the flash point,
• At 3 minutes, a dry powder fire extinguisher is used to extinguish the fire. Found that there will be many times when the fire comes back on,
• Finally, a water-based fire extinguisher must be used in the cooking chamber to extinguish the fire in the hood system and the fire from the oil pan,
• At 6 minutes, the flame will be completely eliminated.

Figures illustrate the development of kitchen fires and the process of extinguishing fires in different situations.

Summarize:

1. Cooking oil is very difficult to ignite. As long as the staff does not leave the job of cooking for a long time,
2. When the hood is working, a flame will be sucked into the hood and a fire can occur. So at the time of the fire of the oil in the pan. We should turn off the hood as soon as possible to prevent the accident of continuous flame expansion,
3. It's challenging to extinguish fires caused by cooking oil and fire in the fume hood by using a dry powder fire extinguisher and it is straightforward to re-ignite. Therefore, it is recommended to use a water-based fire extinguisher in a commercial restaurant where there is a high risk.