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Sent by a restoration contractor, under their own name and logo. Who it is for: Owners, multi-unit operators and facilities managers for restaurant groups. When to send it: Send it to food service accounts as the first guide.
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EMERGENCY GUIDE
[ Your logo ]
Restaurant & Food Service Emergency Guide
A hood fire, a sewage backup or a walk-in failure can keep a location closed for weeks, and the health authority decides when it reopens. This guide covers the first hour, the reopening checks and the records to keep.
What makes food service different
- Reopening is a permit decision, not a construction decision. Fire, flood, sewage backup or an extended loss of power or water is treated as an imminent health hazard: operations stop, and the health authority approves the reopening. Confirm your local rules with your health inspector before the season, not during the loss.
- Notify the health department as soon as operations stop, and give them a contact reachable 24/7.
- Grease-fueled fire leaves residue that is acidic and spreads through the whole space, not just the kitchen.
- A suppression system discharge coats surfaces in agent that has to be removed properly or it keeps corroding equipment.
- Sewage backup is category three water under IICRC S500, the water damage standard from the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, the nonprofit that sets the industry's restoration standards and certifies its technicians and firms. Anything porous it touched in a food area is a disposal question, not a cleaning question. The food and the packaging are the bigger number, and the discard list below is the first thing an inspector asks about.
- Walk-in and freezer failures start a product loss clock. Start it at the moment power dropped, not the moment someone noticed. Hot-held food belongs at or above 135°F and cold-held food at or below 41°F or frozen, unless your health authority enforces a stricter cold figure. Confirm yours.
Your first five moves
- Protect guests and staff, and call 911 for any fire, injury, or gas odor.
- Stop the source. Gas, water, or power at the shut-off that controls it, if it is safe to reach.
- Photograph the whole space before anyone cleans, including the walk-in, the line, the dining room, and the door gaskets and insulation on every refrigerated case.
- Protect and separate product. Document what is lost rather than throwing it out unrecorded.
- Call [Company Name] at [emergency number] and tell us whether the health authority has been notified.
Have this ready before the call