Given: Temporary cooking operations are conducted at fairs, festivals, church socials, local publically funded athletic fields, etc. The setups are typical using tents, trailers, or maybe some permanent structures such as shacks, sheds, booths or buildings. Cooking includes the use of deep oil for french fries and funnel cakes, griddles for hamburgers, Italian sausage and Philly Cheese steak sandwiches. Most cooking operations are fueled by LPG. Customers are not provided seating within the cooking tent, trailer or shack.
Any tents used for cooking operations are less than 900 square feet. In fact, they're the typical pop-up variety of 10x10 or 12x12 foot size. Therefore, they do not trip the USBC 900 sq ft trigger. All tents have a 20 foot separation from all other tents or structures. No hood is present.
Trailers are licensed by DMV. By virtue of that fact, the USBC doesn't touch 'em. These trailers are converted or designed and constructed for cooking operations and could range in size from 10 feet in length to 24 feet, maybe even 50 feet. They travel during a season from one event to another, either intrastate or interstate. The trailer may or may not have a hood installed.
Shacks, sheds, booths or buildings are more permanent in nature and vary in size. Construction materials range from wood to block to sheet metal. Size varies but for the purpose of the questions posed below, they're a mixture of pre- and post-USBC structures; some may have been built under a USBC permit and some weren't. So, for the purpose of the question below, let's use two examples. The first cooking shack measures 10x12 feet, walls of concrete block, and has a sheet metal roof over wood rafters. There's no hood. The second cooking shack measures 12x24 feet of wood construction and asphalt shingle roof over plywood decking and wood rafters. (At what size does a shack become a building?) There may or may not be a hood present.
Zoning and/or health department regulations do not enter the equation and are of no assistance. Nor is a vendor's profit or lack of profit.
Questions: Because of the presence of deep oil or the production of grease laden vapors, as a code official, can you:
1. Require automatic suppression?
2. If "yes" to any of the above scenarios, as a code official what code and code section do you use to base the requirement?
3. What if a hood is present? Do any of your "no" answers change?
4. What if a hood is not present? Do any of your "yes" answers change?
Deadline: I'd appreciate any response you'd care to provide via email by April 10th.
