Charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants – Fire safety and documentation requirements
The Norwegian fire brigade has experienced an increased number of fires that have occurred due to charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants. The fires have mainly occurred in the kitchen exhaust system in connection to the oven, or in nearby wall constructions.
According to the Norwegian Building Authority, charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants shall not be defined as fireplaces, but as production equipment. This means that, as opposed to fireplaces, requirements on minimum distances and exhaust systems are not specified. The regulations for production equipment do not include specific requirements for charcoal burning ovens and the fire service, restaurants, building owners as well as the suppliers of restaurant charcoal burning ovens consider these regulations to be unclear and difficult to interpret.
Kitchen exhaust systems for charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants are defined as construction products and are regulated by Regulations on technical requirements for construction (TEK17). To improve the fire safety in restaurants with charcoal and wood burning ovens should the regulatory requirements be revised to ensure that the kitchen exhaust systems connected to these ovens are able to withstand the high temperatures and any spark or flame formation that may occur in the ovens. Cleaning of the exhaust and duct systems is critical, as fires in the duct systems can spread rapidly due to ignition of grease and soot, giving severe damages.
It is recommended to establish a requirement that all charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants should be reported and registered. That would give the fire service a complete overview of restaurants with charcoal burning ovens. This is a prerequisite for being able to reach out with necessary fire safety information related to installation and use of charcoal burning ovens in order to prevent fire incidents.
In addition to regulations, relevant standards have been listed in this study. The Norwegian Building Authority has previously made a statement that the standard NS-EN 12815 Residential cookers fired by solid fuel - Requirements and testing methods is not valid for charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants. NS-EN 12815 is applicable for residential kitchen ovens equipped with a hotplate and a separate oven for cooking. RISE Fire Research has not found a NS-EN standard or national standard specifically for charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants.
On-site inspections at five different restaurants with charcoal burning ovens gave valuable insight into how fire safety is taken care of in a selection of well-established grill restaurants. Two types of charcoal burning ovens were observed during the inspections, one closed and one open type. Based on the observations during the inspections, input from the restaurants, the charcoal burning oven industry, and the fire service, it is recommended to further investigate, by testing, whether a new test standard should be developed, or whether one of the existing test standards for fireplaces covers the necessary safety requirements of charcoal and wood burning ovens in restaurants.
2019. , p. 52
charcoal burning oven, kitchen exhaust systems, duct systems, commercial kitchen, fire safety, kullgrill, avtrekkskanal, storkjøkken, brannsikkerhet, brannforebyggende, restaurantkjøkken