Commercial Kitchen Fire Suppression in London

For most commercial premises in the capital it is the London Fire Brigade. The London Fire Commissioner is London’s fire and rescue authority, and the Brigade’s fire safety inspectors enforce the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. The Order places the duties on the “responsible person”, usually the employer or whoever controls the premises: a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment, the fire precautions that follow from it, and a suitable system of maintenance that keeps fire safety equipment in efficient working order and good repair. It does not name kitchen suppression as such, but once a system forms part of your fire precautions it has to be maintained, and your service records are how you show that it has been.

Mainly who else is involved. Where two or more responsible persons share premises, the Fire Safety Order requires them to co-operate and co-ordinate with each other, so a landlord or managing agent will often want to see the system design, method statements and service records, and many set their own requirements in the lease or fit-out guide. Access changes too: the visit is booked through the building, with security, loading and any permit to work agreed beforehand. We arrange that with the building as part of planning the job.

It should be, and in many central London buildings it has to be. Each service includes checking that the system shuts off the gas and power to the cooking equipment, so the line cannot be cooking while it is done. The visit is booked into a window agreed with you and your building in advance, such as before service, after close, or outside office hours for a staff restaurant that only trades on weekdays.

It can. A delivery-only site often runs more cooking lines, and changes them more often, than a single restaurant of the same size. Suppression nozzles are positioned for specific appliances, so when a brand changes its menu or swaps a fryer for a chargrill, the coverage has to be checked against the new line. We survey each canopy and the appliances under it rather than treating the unit as one kitchen.