One of the most important parts of running a successful kitchen is safety. SeQuential was started in the back of a restaurant, so we know how important it is to you and your business that your customers and employees stay safe. It’s also important that your building remains secure, even when you’re not present. One of the biggest risks posed to any commercial kitchen is fire, and one of the main causes of fires in kitchens is cooking oil that hasn’t been properly disposed of. Fortunately, reducing the risk of fire can easily be achieved by properly maintaining your grease trap and adhering to best practices when disposing of your used oil. Here is a quick overview of how improper disposal leads to fires and what you can do to prevent them.
Clogged Traps and Unsafe Practices
Many cooking oil fires are caused by grease traps that are not properly serviced and maintained. Allowing grease traps to back up is extremely dangerous. Cooking oil has a low flash point, making it highly flammable. If a grease trap overflows near the stove or a gas source, this can be especially dangerous as it exposes everyone to a very flammable work environment.
Another way grease fires can happen is when someone allows an abundance of cooking oil to overflow onto the stove-top or from the fryer. Grease fires are very difficult to contain, and many people panic when a small fire starts and don’t perform the correct safety procedures, leading to larger fires and more destruction.
If you have a clogged grease trap outside of your business, and someone throws a lit object too close, major fire damage can occur to your business as well as your neighbors.
Having used cooking oil sitting around in the open, for any reason, isn’t safe. The best practice is to properly dispose of the cooking oil in a timely fashion in a SeQuential container.
How to Prevent Cooking Oil Fire Risks
Keeping your business safe from cooking oil fires can be broken down into two, very easy steps:
- Keep your grease trap clean: Having your grease trap correctly serviced by expert SeQuential technicians not only helps you avoid dangerous backups, but it also helps you avoid hefty fines from your municipality’s grease inspector for not properly maintaining the trap. We work with you to create a maintenance schedule that fits with your oil use and keeps everything up to code.
- Recycle your used cooking oil: You can avoid having an abundance of cooking oil sitting around your business by recycling used cooking oil into low carbon renewable fuel. We provide you with a hassle-free disposal container, and then we work with you to create a convenient pickup schedule. This keeps the cooking oil safely contained while it awaits its second life as green energy that’s better for the planet.
Let Us Help You Keep Your Business Safe
At SeQuential, we are experts at grease trap maintenance. Our professional technicians can help ensure your trap is clean and free of clogs, and we will gladly collect any used cooking oil you have in our effort to reduce greenhouse emissions. Contact us today.