Kitchen workers to sign that they've read the manual?

gooterz said :

Probably the simple fact that smoke is combustable in wood fires. If the fire wasn’t lit properly it could have easily sparked and exploded up the tube.

What?

Probably the simple fact that smoke is combustable in wood fires. If the fire wasn’t lit properly it could have easily sparked and exploded up the tube.

Pork Hunt said :

Why a coroners inquest when (luckily) no one died?

Coroners don’t just investigate deaths.

“A Coroner must hold an inquiry into the cause and origin of a fire that has destroyed or damaged property if requested to do so by the Attorney-General, or the Coroner is of the opinion that an inquiry into the cause and origin of the fire should be held.”
http://www.courts.act.gov.au/magistrates/courts/coroners_court

bundah said :

“a fire started in the exhaust ductwork”
*snip*
the ignition of combustible materials in the ductwork
*snip*
Access panels intended to facilitate the cleaning of the ductwork which had been provided for in engineering specifications for the ductwork were not present

I’ve heard of this kind of fire in kitchens before.
It’s not the first, and it definitely won’t be the last.

I disagree with point D, there is no guarantee that had the access points been installed that they would have been used to clean the ductwork so I would not say that was a major factor. Clearly the spray filter designed to extinguish the embers was the issue.

johnboy said :

very few restaurants in this world that don’t have a microwave in hard use.

Absolutely. The now very expensive Bookplate microwaves a lot of their menu. With appalling results.

That’s true, I meant that they’re not often used as a primary component of the cooking though. We didn’t have one at all at Flatheads, but we weren’t exactly a proper restaurant. Mikkel would have died of shame at the thought of using a microwave to cook, I reckon.

Seems a bit stupid to be honest. Does this include things like toasters and microwaves? Not that you’d hope there would be many microwaves in use in commercial kitchens, but would this recommendation cover toasters and stove-tops? If so, then it’s bloody stupid waste of time. I’ll concede that you’d want the operator of something a bit more exotic, like a pizza oven, to know enough not to burn down the building, but this seems like one of those laws that will waste a lot of time and ultimately achieve nothing.

The coroner made the following findings as to the cause and origin of the fire:

a. At approximately 4:27 pm on 23 June 2011 a fire started in the exhaust ductwork servicing the commercial kitchen in the Flint restaurant in Tenancy 2 at Block 2, Section 24, in the Division of Acton in the Australian Capital Territory;

b. The cause of the fire was the ignition of combustible materials in the ductwork, most likely from heat or embers emanating from the wood-fired pizza oven in the Flint restaurant;

c. A spray filter device in that wood-fired pizza oven was not operational immediately before the fire. The non-operational state of that device was a significant contributing factor to the cause of the fire;

d. Access panels intended to facilitate the cleaning of the ductwork which had been provided for in engineering specifications for the ductwork were not present. The absence of these panels was a significant contributing factor to the cause of the fire.

e. The fire was accidental in nature, and not the consequence of any malicious or deliberate conduct on the part of any person.

I’ll go with her findings as to what transpired over any news reports from the Crimes.

In this case, yes.

A flaming stove should not travel to the flue system and destroy a building.