Why Fire Safety Engineers Should Be Used To Inspect A Restaurant's Extinguishers
Restaurant owners likely already have fire extinguishers scattered through their business. However, these extinguishers may fail from time to time. To prevent this danger, it is important to call a fire safety engineer and have them inspect the units.
Simple Things Cause Extinguisher Failure
While fire extinguishers are typically fairly safe and reliable, there are a few ways they can fail. For example, common wear-and-tear concerns could cause the hoses to weaken and decrease the pressure inside of the tank. It could also cause the tank to leak the extinguishing item used to put out fires. Typically, these concerns are more likely in a rougher outdoor environment.
However, they could still happen in a restaurant environment. And when a fire extinguisher fails in a restaurant, it is opened up to an increased risk of serious fires starting in the kitchen and spreading to the rest of the building.
Why Extinguishers Matter
In a kitchen fire, it is very easy for a fire to spread quickly. This problem is especially true in restaurants, which often have very small and tight kitchens. Many are also likely to have grease and other items stored inside and potentially staining areas of the floor and cupboard. To stop a fire from spreading quickly in a kitchen, a fire extinguisher is essential.
However, if the fire extinguisher fail and the fire continues to spread, it is likely to get serious very quickly. Damage repair costs for a fire average out to about $4,000. However, more severe fires can cause damage as high as $12,000 to $20,000. Even if a restaurant has insurance, that is a lot of money to lose in repairs. Thankfully, a fire safety technician can inspect and repair fire extinguishers.
How A Fire Engineer Can Help
Restaurants that are worried about their fire extinguisher failing should call a fire engineer and have them inspect the safety of the item. They could check it for any serious problems, test its pressure, and repair any concerns that could be affecting it. Most fire protection engineers will do these kinds of inspections for about $10 per extinguisher and will re-charge them for about $35. Repairs are likely to cost a little more.
However, that is still a fraction of the cost that occurs when a restaurant suffers from severe fire. Fires spreading through the kitchen and into the front of the restaurant can cause thousands of dollars of damage quite quickly. As a result, it is important to contact a fire safety engineer right away and have them fix the problem quickly and easily.
Even if the budget for a restaurant is rather tight, the small amount of money it requires to manage this problem is slight compared to the cost of repairing a destroyed restaurant. In this way, a fire safety engineer is practically saving a restaurant money.