9 stores closed after Mall Grease exhaust Fire

Area above food court

pouring smoke out during

grease exhaust fire.

Here is why proper inspection programs with full pictures of each and every cleaning (not the partial pictures the National Vendors try to pass off on cleanings that were done improperly) and full accountability are so important!
9 Ala Moana stores remain closed after fire. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -Nine stores and restaurants at Ala Moana shopping center are still closed because of yesterday's fire. On Thursday a fire forced the evacuation of the Ala Moana food court. HFD says the fire started at the Panda Express Kitchen and spread into the mall food court trunk line grease duct system. Firefighters are looking into whether the restaurant and Mall management followed the proper cleaning schedule for the duct.An unattended wok containing oil sparked the blaze.

Here is a list of the stores that are still temporarily closed:

Makai Market Food Court:

Hibachi

Yummy Korean BBQ

Soba-ya

Panda Express

Sbarro

Mall Level 2 Merchants:

Papyrus

Bag ‘n Baggage

Mall Level 3 Merchants:

American Eagle

Aeropostale

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Why have on the job inspections of KEC(Kitchen Exhaust Cleanings)?

Looking up from the hood at one location, you can see

where the unscrupulous cleaning companies clean only

what can be seen.

But placing the camera around the corner we see different.

And looking into the first horizontal run, we can see this has not

been done in years. This job was just "Cleaned" 3 weeks

prior to these pictures.

Another restaurant in same community, you can see

the small area cleaned from above in the vertical riser

in the middle of the picture. The rest of this horizontal

plenum above a char broiler has not been cleaned in years

as you can see clearly. This job had just been "cleaned" 2 weeks

prior. The clean parts were still fairly clean with less than 5 microns

of grease buildup.

One of the communities in the midwest once had one of the top KEC inspection programs in the state only a few years ago. They eliminated the permit program and the on site inspection of the cleanings. At its height, all systems were cleaned to NFPA96 standards with no inaccessible areas and they had one of the best track records in the country. Now, only a few years later, there are vast areas not getting cleaned as the KEC vendors now are all trying to beat each other on pricing and are now skipping areas to reduce costs now that no one is looking any more. Most of the restaurants have no ideas that this is going on or maybe are simply accepting the risk similar to what the companies using National KEC vendors are doing. If one ever wondered if a program works and how fast things go downhill without someone watching, the picture here are proof of what the reality that even some of the companies that were passing inspection previously are now skipping almost everything past what can be seen from the hood. All of these picture are from the same city, different restaurants.

IKECA Meetings and fire inspections

Attendees at the AHJ training seminar.

Good to see everyone at the Milwaukee Technical Meetings. We have 40 Code officials (AHJ's) from Milwaukee, Madison, MN, and Canada attend the AHJ training seminar on Wednesday. I hope everyone learned something. Jeff Shadegg from the Inver Grove Heights Fire Department made a presentation on Friday about their grease exhaust inspection program. He has been doing this for over 20 years. Since he started the IGH program, they have eliminated grease exhaust fires!! With a low cost permit program and checking almost every single cleaning done right at the end of the jobs, the program has eliminated shortcut cleaning jobs along with the dangers and risks to the facilities. Jeff would be a good source for cities looking into their own program. Proper grease exhaust cleaning inspection programs can potentially save cities, restaurants, and insurance companies millions of dollars a year plus untold lives that are affected by the fires. John Lee, a Windsor, Canada Fire inspector also presented about their new program and they are finding the same things as all programs do at the start with vast areas not done to NFPA96 standards and the claims by the KEC companies that the duct are inaccessible. This claim is such a bogus line in my opinion and unacceptable. Proper UL listed access plates can easily be installed and the systems are not really inaccessible, the truth is the companies simply are not professionally evaluating the systems during their bid process and including and requiring proper access. My saying is simple. "There are no inaccessible areas, only areas people choose not to access." When you see "inaccessible areas cleaned" on a hood sticker, it is a possible warning that some or all areas were not cleaned and you still have a huge fire danger. I know this is standard on many canned hood stickers, but that statement needs to go away on a certification sticker. I think only systems completely cleaned should be certified!! That is my opinion and if followed, it will lead to a lot less confusion on what was actually cleaned or not. It also holds the cleaning companies and restaurants accountable. I tell all KEC companies that they should refuse to clean a job that will not allow them to install proper access and that proper access MUST be a precondition to taking on any job or bid.