Orange County Restaurant Sprinkler Inspections

Restaurant sprinkler inspection and testing · NFPA 25 and Title 19 · OCFA cities and city fire departments

Grease, steam and a sprinkler head over the fryer

Restaurants are hard on sprinklers. The heads near your cooking line sit in heat and grease vapor all day long. Over months, a film builds up on the head and on its heat-sensing element, and a coated head may be slow to open in a fire or may not open at all. Dish rooms add steam. Walk-ins add cold and condensation.

NFPA 25 says to replace a head loaded with grease, paint or corrosion. Wiping it off isn't the fix. So we look at every head we can reach, room by room.

What a restaurant sprinkler inspection covers

• Heads in the kitchen, dining room, bar, restrooms, storage rooms and walk-ins: grease, paint, corrosion, damage, missing cover plates, and anything hung from the pipe.
• Storage stacked too close below the heads.
• Control valves: open, sealed or locked, and easy to reach.
• Gauges showing normal pressure.
• The fire department connection: caps on, clear and visible from the street side.
• Waterflow and tamper switches that report to your fire alarm panel.

How often? NFPA 25 sets quarterly and annual inspections, plus a five-year internal pipe assessment and gauge replacement or testing. California adds its own five-year rule under Title 19: the system has to be serviced and certified by a contractor licensed by the State Fire Marshal. Heads that have been in service for 50 years must be replaced or sample-tested.

Restaurant sprinkler testing: what actually runs

An inspection is what the technician sees. Testing is what the technician makes happen. On a test visit we open the inspector's test valve or main drain and watch how the system responds: does the waterflow alarm sound, does the signal reach the panel, and does the pressure come back after the drain closes?

We also turn control valves to make sure they move freely. Tamper switches get tripped to confirm the supervisory signal comes in. Water runs at the drain outlet, not in your dining room. Tell us your prep and service hours when you book.

Something failed? A stuck valve, a dead switch or a bad head becomes a repair. Our restaurant sprinkler repair page explains what happens next.

Your hood system is a separate inspection

The wet chemical system under your hood isn't part of the sprinkler system. It follows its own standards (NFPA 96 and NFPA 17A) and runs on its own schedule: every six months. Its fusible links are replaced at least that often. A kitchen with a hood system also needs a Class K extinguisher on the wall.

Book both if both are due. See kitchen fire suppression service in Orange County, or read how a restaurant client beat a fire marshal's 30-day deadline on a San Diego hood system.

Which fire agency inspects your restaurant?

Orange County has no single fire department. The Orange County Fire Authority is a joint powers authority that covers 23 cities and all unincorporated areas. In those places, OCFA's Community Risk Reduction department enforces the fire code and coordinates annual life safety inspections of existing commercial buildings.

Other cities run their own departments, including Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Orange and Placentia. Garden Grove and Santa Ana have moved to OCFA. Local fire code amendments can also differ, because each OCFA member city's council votes to adopt them. Not sure who covers your address? Call your city's fire marshal before your next inspection. They're the ones who will read your sprinkler records.

Who does the work

Our California work is done by Hedrick Fire Protection, which holds C-16 (fire protection) and C-10 (electrical) contractor licenses and is licensed by the California State Fire Marshal under Title 19 for inspection, testing and maintenance of water-based fire protection systems.

Ready to book? Call (949) 558-2201 or email socal@1profire.com with your address, your city and the date of your last sprinkler report if you have it.