 A key part of maintaining your restaurant is keeping it safe. While you know you need restaurant insurance in place to reduce overall financial risk to your building should a fire break out, it is always best to focus first on prevention — and it may be easier to do than you realize. Preventing kitchen fires is essential in any commercial kitchen, but many times businesses don't realize the simple steps they can take to achieve this goal.
How You Can Reduce Fires Today
To reduce fire risks within your restaurant or any other commercial kitchen, consider a few key steps that could help reduce the number of restaurant insurance claims you have to make.
- Have An Assessment Done: A good place to start is with a risk assessment. While your business insurance provider may be able to help you with this, you can also turn to a third party company. These professionals will come into your location and identify key areas of risk based on how you operate, your equipment and your staff. Overall, the process is very thorough and creates some guidelines for you to follow.
- Update Your Manufacturer Procedures: Every piece of equipment in your kitchen comes with a manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule as well as proper usage instructions. Follow them. One of the most important steps these companies take is to reduce the risk that you will suffer a fire from using their equipment. Ensure all of your proper usage procedures meet manufacturer requirements.
- Have Professional Servicing Routinely: While your maintenance staff can follow the recommended maintenance, it is also important to have a professional out to provide routine maintenance on your equipment. They will not only ensure that your equipment is working properly, but can also help you minimize fire risks.
Additional Steps To Take
In addition to these tips for preventing restaurant fires, there are a few more recommendations to keep in mind. Have your smoke systems and fire extinguishers checked and charged on a regular basis. Turn to your local health department for support in minimizing risks, especially related to OSHA standards. And be sure you have proper training in place to minimize these types of risks.
Make sure you have casualty and property insurance and that it's been reviewed recently. It would be tragic if the property limits on your policy weren't adequate enough.
Fire is one of the biggest causes of loss for a restaurant. If and when it happens, you want to be prepared in order to avoid a financial loss and get back up and running as soon as possible.
Protect your business endeavor. Call Southwest Commercial Insurance at (512) 771-6091 today to learn more about the restaurant insurance policies we offer.
Posted Monday, June 27 2016 3:00 PM
Tags : restaurant insurance, coverage, safety, protection, tips, fires, risks, insurance, Southwest Commercial Insurance
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