Food Trucks and Firefighting Concerns
For decades food trucks and food carts have been service food to people on street corners, carnivals and events all around the world. In today's world, food trucks and food carts are popping up everywhere. From birthday parties to school and work functions you name it and a food truck is probably there serving food. These carts or trucks are known as Mobile Food Preparation Vehicles or MFPV for short. Some are trucks designed to house a kitchen setup and others are trailers pulled by a truck or SUV. Either way both serve the same purpose, preparing food for customers.
These trucks provide a unique set of challenges for firefighters and provide a few hazards that commonly scene when fighting vehicle fires.
We are very well aware that cooking is the leading cause of accidental fires in the United States with respect to residential fires. With respect to commercial occupancies, these structures are more well equipped to handle the potential of an accidental mishap in the kitchen. Commercial kitchens mitigate the risk through hood suppression systems over their cooking appliances such as ovens, burners and grills. The same goes for MFPVs…but not exactly.
The newly designed, custom-built food trucks will be equipped with hood suppressions systems however the older retro-converted trucks may not be as equipped. Making the workers not as fortunate should an accidental kitchen fire breakout. In all cases, all MFPVs will be equipped with portable fire extinguishers to suppress kitchen fires from grease, fat and cooking oils.
Propane Tanks
The most significant risk of fires to MFPVs are propane tanks. According to the NFPA, 68% of food truck fires are related to leaks or failures in the propane tanks themselves. Propane is used in various ways with respect to food trucks. For one, they're used as fuel for cooking and possibly refrigeration.
While propane is generally safe to cook with, a small 20-pound cylinder on a backyard grill has the explosive equivalent to 170 sticks of dynamite. MFPVs can carry around 100-pounds of propane cylinders at a time in order to be efficient and produce food services to customers. One hundred pounds of propane is capable of producing more than 2.6 million BTUs (British Thermal Units). One food truck carrying that amount of propane can generate 6 times more energy from an exploding propane tank than a backyard grill using a 20-pound propane tank.
Since these trucks are constantly moving from place to place, the risk of a propane failure can increase. This is due to the trucks driving on bumpy terrain or hitting potholes. Both of which can loosen the connections and fittings or cause structural damage to the tank. With respect to air, propane is heavier. In fact, propane is 1.55 times heavier than air which causes it to sink. Thus, causing a pooling effect near the floor should a tank leak. Because of this, a single spark from the cooking appliances has the potential to ignite the gas.
Many trucks carry spare tanks or have their current tank fitted to the outside of their MFPV which decreases the risk of leaks inside the unit. The risk this does carry is tank explosions from minor collisions on the roadway or single vehicle accidents.
Generators
Older MFPVs are more likely to pose a risk with the use of portable generators. These are used to run electricity to the truck. Older MFPV's or converted ones could possibly lack the proper ventilation of the off gases from the generators which raise the risk of carbon monoxide emergencies in the mobile unit.
Past Incident
On July 1, 2014, in the Feltonville neighborhood of Philadelphia, a leaking propane tank ignited and exploded. The truck operator and her daughter were severely burned and died three weeks later. An additional 10 others were injured as a result of the blast.
Since then, the NFPA has made changes to NFPA 1 and NFPA 96. The leaders at the NFPA concluded that an easily adopted national standard would go a long way in increasing the number of communities with comprehensive food truck safety regulations.
These standards and changes can be found at the links below:
Until next time; work hard, stay safe & live inspired.