Between March and June 2026 the London Fire Brigade published reports on at least four restaurant and takeaway fires where the extract ducting was involved. Each building had people living above. Nobody was hurt in any of them, but in each case the fire used the ducting to travel up through the building.
What the reports say
| Date | Where | What the Brigade reported |
|---|---|---|
| 28 March 2026 | Greenford Road, Greenford | Fire within the ducting of a ground-floor restaurant with maisonettes above. Eight engines, about 60 firefighters. Cause under investigation at the time of the report. |
| 6 April 2026 | Chapel Road, Ilford | Ground-floor restaurant and the ducting from ground floor to roof damaged. Believed caused by unsafe disposal of charcoal from a grill. |
| 10 May 2026 | Royal Parade, Lee Green | Half the ground-floor kitchen and the ducting from first floor to roof damaged. Accidental, caused by grease build-up in the ducting. |
| 15 June 2026 | Great West Road, Hounslow | Part of the ground floor, half the roof and the whole ducting and extraction system of a takeaway damaged. Cooking oil ignited in a deep fat fryer. |
After the Lee Green and Hounslow fires the Brigade gave the same advice: "If you don't clean your extraction system regularly, you're at greater risk of ducting fires."
Not every fire starts in the duct - but most end up there
Only one of the four, Lee Green, was put down to grease in the ducting itself. The others started with charcoal, a fryer, and an undetermined cause. The pattern is what happens next: once a fire reaches a duct lined with grease, the duct becomes a chimney to the floors above. That is why insurers and fire risk assessors ask to see when the system was last cleaned, how dirty it was, and when it is due again.
What this means for a cleaning firm
When a kitchen has a fire, the cleaning records are among the first documents anyone asks for. Three things decide whether yours help the client or not:
- Readings, not just a tick. A report that shows the grease deposit readings before and after the clean, with dated photographs of the same points, shows what state the system was left in. A certificate on its own does not.
- The next clean on record. The cleaning interval for each system depends on how heavily the kitchen is used. If the next date is written down and booked when the job closes, nobody has to remember it. A missed clean is the gap that shows up later.
- Records you can find in a minute. If a client, insurer or assessor asks for the last three reports on a site, the answer should be an email, not an afternoon in the filing cabinet.
None of this changes how the clean itself is done. It changes whether the paperwork proves it.
How SMART handles it
SMART - TR19 Grease reporting is built for firms working to TR19 Grease. The engineer records readings and before-and-after photographs on their phone, the office reviews the job, and the client receives a locked post-clean report and certificate in the firm's own branding. The next clean date is worked out from the system's cleaning frequency and appears on the planner.
See how the planner books the next clean: kitchen extract cleaning scheduling software. Or open the live demo - no sign-up - with a sample report and certificate.
Sources (read 5 and 7 October 2026)
- London Fire Brigade, Restaurant fire - Greenford, 28 March 2026
- London Fire Brigade, Fire at restaurant with flats above - Ilford, 6 April 2026
- London Fire Brigade, Fire at a restaurant - Lee Green, 10 May 2026
- London Fire Brigade, Restaurant fire - Hounslow, 15 June 2026
TR19® is a registered trade mark of the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA). Smart Solutions Bristol Ltd is not affiliated with or endorsed by BESA.
Written by Edward Bristow, an engineer of more than 15 years. Published 7 October 2026.