Author Archive: Mark Wagemaker

service tech on roof cleaning exhaust

Top 4 Benefits of Hiring a Professional Hood Cleaning Company

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Keeping a commercial kitchen clean isn’t easy, but it’s an essential part of running a restaurant. While you can take care of some tasks yourself, hood cleaning is best left to the professionals. Northland Fire & Safety explains the benefits of hiring a professional hood cleaning company. Northland Fire & Safety provides fire suppression systems, hood cleaning, fire alarms, UL monitoring, emergency/exit lighting, and fire protection equipment to commercial property owners in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the upper peninsula of Michigan.

Comply With Fire Codes: Fire authorities developed codes for commercial kitchens to help reduce the risk of a blaze. Professional hood cleaning companies understand fire code requirements. As they clean it, they will make sure your kitchen exhaust system is in compliance with all rules and regulations. If for some reason it isn’t, they will let you know about it.

Save Time: Many restaurant owners underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes to properly clean a hood. It’s a dirty, difficult job that can take all day. A professional hood cleaning company will get the chore done in a fraction of the time, saving you or your employees from having to do the task.

Clean Deep: These experts will provide a deep cleaning of your hood, to even the most intricate exhaust systems. They have the tools and equipment to thoroughly clean every inch of your system and get rid of the built up grease, dirt, and grime.

Prevent Damage: There’s a high risk of damage when amateurs take apart a kitchen exhaust system when cleaning it. Not only could this require costly repairs, but a broken hood could cause injury to employees. Professional hood cleaning companies know the ins and outs of kitchen exhaust systems, and they’ll make sure no parts get damaged as they take apart, clean, and put the system back together.

If you need professional hood cleaning for your commercial kitchen, contact Northland Fire & Safety for exceptional service. To schedule your kitchen exhaust cleaning, call (888) 722-8812. Visit them online for more information on all of their products and services.

fire extinguisher usage chart

Fire Extinguisher Guide: How They Work

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Fire extinguishers provide the first line of defense in the event of a blaze incident involving commercial and residential buildings. However, investing in extinguishers won’t serve a purpose without learning how the fire protection equipment works. To help you understand these essential safety tools, Northland Fire shares some useful information about operating fire extinguishers.

How They Work

A fire cannot sustain itself without three essential elements: a heat source, oxygen, and fuel. Eliminating one of these factors diminishes the flame. Fire extinguishers employ this principle by getting rid of at least one of the elements keeping the blaze alight.

Their three main types target different sources of the fire to ensure protection for a building’s residents. Among these, water extinguishers are the most popular type and work by gradually eliminating heat from the fire.

Carbon dioxide-based fire protection equipment relies on the gaseous and liquefied form of this nonflammable material and helps manage a flame in two ways. It first absorbs all the oxygen from the blaze; then its cold temperature eliminates the heat.

A dry chemical extinguisher, the third and most practical type of fire extinguishing device, utilizes nitrogen gas in a compressed form. When put into action, the fire extinguisher sets off a jet of foam or dry, powdered nitrogen to react with oxygen and suppress the flame.

How to Operate

Operating fire extinguishers depends on how they channel the applied pressure and use it to set off a stream of fire-repellent substances. Water-based extinguishers possess an internal pressure mechanism that simply requires a tug at the safety ring before pulling the trigger.

The other two types need a cartridge to force the fire-suppressant materials onto the flame, which is typically a more complicated process. You can learn about safely operating and handling extinguisher devices by signing up for the detailed training sessions offered by Northland Fire & Safety.

When you need cutting-edge fire extinguishers for residential and commercial buildings, Northland Fire is up for the task. Learn more about their impressive fire sprinklers and other safety devices by visiting our website.

discharging fire extinguisher

3 Benefits of Fire Extinguishers

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Whether the incident occurs in a restaurant or your own home, keeping fire extinguishers on-site can make all the difference in preventing small fires from turning into a four-alarm blaze. But do you really understand the full impact of this fire protection equipment? As the team at Northland Fire, explains, understanding the facts helps put the benefits of fire extinguishers into perspective.

1. Keeping Fires Under Control

Two European studies conducted in 2002 reviewed over 4,500 fire incidents and found fire extinguishers can be extremely effective in stopping flames before they grow out of control. Both studies found fire extinguishers were able to stop the fire in over 80% of recorded incidents, while also noting many others that are extinguished in this manner are never reported to the fire department in the first place.

2. Saving Lives

When the effectiveness of fire extinguishers is put in context of overall fire statistics, it becomes clear how much of a difference these tools can make. According to the NFPA, there were 15,700 injuries and 3,280 deaths as a result of property fires in the United States in 2015. These occurred as the result of over 1.3 million reported fires. When a fire extinguisher is able to confine the spread of a fire, it can literally save lives, especially in places with lots of people, like hotels and schools.

3. Protecting the Environment

Uncontrolled fires can also have a harmful effect on the environment by releasing carbon and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. By extinguishing the blaze early on, fire extinguishers help minimize the spread of pollutants while also saving the water firefighters would otherwise use to extinguish the blaze.

By providing and servicing fire extinguishers and other suppression systems, the team at Northland Fire will help you keep your property safe. To learn more about their products and services, visit them online.

clean kitchen exhaust hood

Avoid Restaurant Fires With Professional Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning

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Running a restaurant is a delicate balancing act. Between dealing with the staff, vendors, schedules, and bookkeeping, it’s easy to let regular maintenance start to slide. However, Northland Fire, a premier provider of fire suppression systems and kitchen exhaust cleaning services indicates that many restaurants open themselves up to the risk of a fire by simply not taking adequate maintenance precautions.

To help prevent kitchen fires in your restaurant or commercial kitchen, follow these three safety tips from the team at Northland Fire & Safety:

Make Regular Kitchen Exhaust Cleaning A Priority: Also known as hood cleaning, kitchen exhaust cleaning is a seriously important part of fire prevention. In commercial kitchens, grease can accumulate in the exhaust ducts and vents at an alarmingly fast rate. When left to collect long term, the buildup can lead to inadequate ventilation and even cause a fire. You should opt for professional kitchen exhaust cleaning every 90 days for maximum fire prevention.

Check Your Fire Extinguishers Every 3 Months: If you don’t think about the state of your fire extinguishers until you need them, you put your kitchen and restaurant at serious risk. According to the safety professionals from Northland Fire & Safety, you should perform a full check of all the fire extinguishers on the premises four times a year.

Install A Restaurant Fire Suppression System: Northland Fire sells appliance specific fire suppression systems that are specially made for commercial kitchen environments. These systems offer excellent coverage and can stop anything from grease fires to electrical fires.

Without properly cleaning your kitchen equipment on a regular basis, you are putting your entire business and staff in harm’s way. Not only are kitchen fires extremely dangerous, they are also expensive and time-consuming to fix. To learn more about professional kitchen exhaust cleaning services and other techniques to avoid a fire in your restaurant, visit Northland Fire online or call directly.

emergency exit light

3 Types of Emergency Lighting & Their Benefits

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Emergency lighting helps people make important decisions in dangerous situations by clearly marking exits and pathways to safety. In fact, this is why emergency lighting is mandated in public buildings—and why Northland Fire & Safety of Superior, WI, considers it one of their most important commercial and industrial services alongside fire suppression systems and fire extinguishers.

Here, these safety experts explain the different types of emergency lighting that can help keep customers safe in a variety of situations.

Open Area Lighting: It’s hard to deny the benefits of powerful illumination when performing a task that requires a high degree of precision, such as surgery, but it can also save lives in more general situations. Many large hallways and foyers are illuminated 24/7 to let occupants see where they’re going and to minimize panic during emergencies. This type of lighting can also be a powerful deterrent against illicit activities, keeping buildings even safer.

Task Lighting: This type of emergency lighting helps people see when they need to perform a safety procedure like breaking glass to access a shut-off switch, reading safety instructions, opening an emergency exit, or operating a fire extinguisher.

Backup Lighting: Power outages usually aren’t emergencies in private homes, but they can be highly disruptive in places like hospitals and businesses. Backup generators are critical for resuming normal operations and continuing to provide emergency lighting. This is why Northland Fire & Safety offers a range of different power sources for their emergency lighting systems.

If you need emergency lighting for indoor or outdoor use, including exit signs and backup power sources, contact Northland Fire. This experienced fire safety company serves commercial and industrial clients throughout Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota. More information about their products and services can be found online.

extinguisher in kitchen

Why a Fire Extinguisher Should be a Part of Your Home Safety Plan

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Your home’s fire extinguishers should never be treated as an afterthought. Northland Fire is the go-to source for all of your fire protection equipment. Not only do we offer new fire extinguishers, fire alarms, and sprinkler systems to homeowners, we also have an extensive line of products designed for commercial facilities. There are many reasons why every home should have an operational and adequate fire extinguisher. In fact, this is one of the best preventive actions you can take to protect your family and your home.

Fire extinguishers are a wise investment and have considerable shelf lives. In a perfect world, you will never experience an emergency that requires a fire extinguisher, but the peace of mind that comes with knowing you have it is immeasurable. It isn’t something you replace every month; in fact, today’s fire extinguishers are good for ten or more years.

Modern fire extinguishers are made with chemicals that put the fire out but won’t damage or destroy other electrical appliances in your home or commercial property. Many people envision a fire extinguisher’s coverage is wide enough to take out the family computer, the microwave, television or other electrical appliances. That’s not always the case.

A fire extinguisher does not command a large storage space. Their compact designs make them a good fit near the areas where fires typically break out, such as near your stove.

You change the batteries in your smoke alarms on a regular basis, and you’ve created an escape plan with your family so that everyone can get out should a fire break out in your home. Isn’t a fire extinguisher just one more important aspect of your family’s protection plan? We invite you to reach out to Northland Fire to install and repair fire protection equipment in your home or office.