BIG NEWS!! A major midwest city has starting planning a comprehensive inspection program following both NFPA96 and the Enviromatic National Inspection Program protocols(See www.enviromatic.com) to start asap. They are hoping to start the first of the year. This will include a requirement for all cleaning companies in this city to pull permits for each cleaning and submit complete picture and report documentation for each cleaning job. The requirements for the pictures will be the same as the Viro National Inspection Program. The Fire Marshall and Fire Chief both believe this may completely prevent future catastrophic grease exhaust fires in their city and also bring many systems into compliance. The fire in Boston and resulting investigations of this and other fires were a major impetus for going forward with the new program. All companies will be required to clean all systems to NFPA96 specifications and all areas WILL BE MADE ACCESSIBLE in this new program. The program will not allow companies to skip any areas nor will it allow anyone to simply report that "inaccessible areas exist"!!! This could be very interesting when all of the fly by night companies actually have to clean the systems properly AND DOCUMENT IT FULLY WITH PICTURES THAT WILL BE VIEWED BY EXPERTS!!! If you have any other fire departments in the country that are interested in doing the right thing like this city is, let them know that they will no longer be alone and there will now be proper procedures in place to implement their inspection programs. Feel free to contact me for assistance. I will keep everyone posted when and where once the ordinance is passed and how the program is working.
Originally published October 10, 2008 on Tales of the Greaser.