After the unfortunate death of 2 firefighters here in Boston, a lot of finger pointing went on. The Fire Inspectors are looking into beefing up adherance to the NFPA 96 codes for restaurants. Looking at this issue it seems to be aimed solely at the restaurant and the hood cleaners. The first and last.
What about the other codes that were ignored during fabrication? For example most installers do not put on hinges or install access panels as recommended. Also what about duct that is like a maze that leaks. Fans that are perched atop a duct that it a few feet off the building and higher than the roof access. Is that a safe work area? As per the codes? Duct that is encapsulated in the ceiling. Also what about the real old systems that the restaurant owners say are grandfathered. I know the codes do not allow grandfathered systems but the fire marshals have been looking the other way for years. Systems are continually being installed without any thought towards cleaning. Then there is a fire and the hood cleaner is at fault. What about the installer, the fire marshal? If we clean everything that is accessible what about the inaccessible areas. The Boston fire, I believe the hood cleaner stated only what he cleaned. The duct was old, and inaccessible. Perhaps his only alternative was to decline the job. Around here there are many many old weird systems that have been approved. They are not up to code. If hood cleaners get blamed for those systems, the parts that they can clean will never get cleaned. It is easy to say clean it all but that is not a real true statement. Sometime you just can't. Recently I ran into a large duct at a college that was covered in insulation. Well guess what, the insulation is asbestos. Another grandfathered system. Clean it. I don't think so. Willimams college, one of the wealthiest in the country had extensive work done in the food service area. You should see it. You need mountain climbing gear just to get to some of the fans centrally located in a huge building. No access to the duct. Duct comes up bends at a 90 goes about 15 feet horiziontally and there it is. Heavy gauge ducts and not an access panel in sight. Some duct goes up several stories on the outside of the building. 90's on to the roof extends to the center of the building and there it is, the fan. Not a door, hinge access panel anywhere. They even built brick walls 15' high aroung the fan. An extension ladder to get to the top of the wall,tied to another extension ladder to get down into the brick bowl and there is another horizontal duct with a fan on the end.
What I am saying is that we are responsible for cleaning. Everything that we can clean. But there are many fabricators that just throw the system up and run away. They tell the restaurant owner that it is up to code, the fire marshal approves it and ...........then we are responsible!
What really p.i.s.s.e.s me off is that we accept this and pick on each other about it. If the fabricators did their job correctly and up to code and if the fire marshals did their job, then cleaning would be a reasonable job. NO.... we have to modify systems and take responsibility for grandfathered systems that should never be running. It is completely wrong. I think our cleaning responsibility should be based on a system conforms to the codes. What should we do with the ones that don't? Send the Fire Marshals a tattle tale report? Lose the customer and anyone they can tell?
OK, WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD I SAY TO A GROUP OF FIRE MARSHALS THAT WANT TO BEEF UP THE CODES AND BLAME THE CLEANERS.
What about the other codes that were ignored during fabrication? For example most installers do not put on hinges or install access panels as recommended. Also what about duct that is like a maze that leaks. Fans that are perched atop a duct that it a few feet off the building and higher than the roof access. Is that a safe work area? As per the codes? Duct that is encapsulated in the ceiling. Also what about the real old systems that the restaurant owners say are grandfathered. I know the codes do not allow grandfathered systems but the fire marshals have been looking the other way for years. Systems are continually being installed without any thought towards cleaning. Then there is a fire and the hood cleaner is at fault. What about the installer, the fire marshal? If we clean everything that is accessible what about the inaccessible areas. The Boston fire, I believe the hood cleaner stated only what he cleaned. The duct was old, and inaccessible. Perhaps his only alternative was to decline the job. Around here there are many many old weird systems that have been approved. They are not up to code. If hood cleaners get blamed for those systems, the parts that they can clean will never get cleaned. It is easy to say clean it all but that is not a real true statement. Sometime you just can't. Recently I ran into a large duct at a college that was covered in insulation. Well guess what, the insulation is asbestos. Another grandfathered system. Clean it. I don't think so. Willimams college, one of the wealthiest in the country had extensive work done in the food service area. You should see it. You need mountain climbing gear just to get to some of the fans centrally located in a huge building. No access to the duct. Duct comes up bends at a 90 goes about 15 feet horiziontally and there it is. Heavy gauge ducts and not an access panel in sight. Some duct goes up several stories on the outside of the building. 90's on to the roof extends to the center of the building and there it is, the fan. Not a door, hinge access panel anywhere. They even built brick walls 15' high aroung the fan. An extension ladder to get to the top of the wall,tied to another extension ladder to get down into the brick bowl and there is another horizontal duct with a fan on the end.
What I am saying is that we are responsible for cleaning. Everything that we can clean. But there are many fabricators that just throw the system up and run away. They tell the restaurant owner that it is up to code, the fire marshal approves it and ...........then we are responsible!
What really p.i.s.s.e.s me off is that we accept this and pick on each other about it. If the fabricators did their job correctly and up to code and if the fire marshals did their job, then cleaning would be a reasonable job. NO.... we have to modify systems and take responsibility for grandfathered systems that should never be running. It is completely wrong. I think our cleaning responsibility should be based on a system conforms to the codes. What should we do with the ones that don't? Send the Fire Marshals a tattle tale report? Lose the customer and anyone they can tell?
OK, WHAT DO YOU THINK I SHOULD I SAY TO A GROUP OF FIRE MARSHALS THAT WANT TO BEEF UP THE CODES AND BLAME THE CLEANERS.
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