Short answer: In Finland a restaurant with more than 50 customer seats needs an emergency plan. The same threshold often applies to bars and similar premises with customer seating. The obligation may also arise where the premises used for the restaurant or bar are workplace premises as defined in the decree, in which the number of employees and other people present at the same time is usually at least 50. A good plan is not just a paper for the authorities – it guides kitchen fire safety, egress and how staff act during a busy service.
Friday evening, a full dining room and a kitchen at full speed. Someone notices a smell of smoke, the alarm activates and guests stand up from their tables. There is no time to dig for an old PDF in email. You need clear escape routes, an agreed assembly point and staff who know what to do.
A restaurant or bar emergency plan exists for exactly that: it brings together the site’s risks, safety arrangements and action instructions in one place. Below is a concise guide to when the plan is a statutory requirement in Finland, what it should contain, and where restaurants and bars typically fall short.
When does a restaurant need an emergency plan?
The obligation is based on the Rescue Act 379/2011 and Government Decree on rescue services 407/2011. In practice, a restaurant or bar is often subject to the emergency-plan obligation especially when:
- there are more than 50 customer seats
- the premises used for the restaurant are workplace premises as defined in the decree, in which the number of employees and other people present at the same time is usually at least 50
- the restaurant operates as part of a site that is otherwise subject to the emergency-plan obligation, such as a shopping centre
- minor industrial handling and storage of a dangerous chemical is carried out on the premises, which may be done only by submitting the notification referred to in section 24 of the Act on the Safety of Hazardous Chemicals and Explosives (390/2005) – for example due to substantial LPG (200 kg or more) or other notifiable chemicals
Note that the wording of the decree is specifically “more than 50 customer seats”, not “at least 50”.
If a safety, preparedness or similar plan must be prepared for the same site under a law other than the Rescue Act or under an order issued by a competent authority, a separate emergency plan is not required. The corresponding matters may be compiled in that other plan, and this must be stated in the document.
Even in a smaller restaurant a plan is often worthwhile: kitchen fire load, grease fires and staff turnover make self-preparedness a practical matter, not mere bureaucracy. If you are unsure about the obligation, start with the quick check on our emergency plan service page.
Who is responsible? Responsibility for drawing up the emergency plan rests with the holder of the building or site. If several operators carry on activities in the building, the plan may be drawn up in cooperation with them. The operator also has its own duties regarding self-preparedness, so the restaurant’s operations, risks and safety arrangements must be taken into account in the planning.
Why a restaurant is not the same as an ordinary workplace
In a restaurant or bar you have staff who know the premises and customers who do not – at the same time. Egress often happens in low light, with music and crowding. The kitchen also brings risks you do not have in an office: hot surfaces, open flames, grease, deep fryers, gas and greasy ventilation ducts. In a bar without a full kitchen, alcohol service, late opening hours and crowded floors still create their own egress challenges.
That is why a generic “workplace safety instruction” is not enough. The plan must fit restaurant and bar reality: short, concrete and something a shift manager or a new employee can grasp in a few minutes.
Kitchen risks that must show in the plan
A kitchen contains several of a restaurant’s significant fire safety risks. The plan should address at least:
- Grease fires and deep fryers. The wrong extinguishing method makes the situation worse. Staff must know which first-aid firefighting equipment to use and where it is.
- Extractor hoods and grease ducts. Dirty ducts are a significant hidden risk. Cleaning, maintenance and responsibilities should be recorded.
- Gas and electricity. The locations of shut-off valves and main switches must be clear.
- Chemicals and cleaning agents. Storage, safety data sheets and possible fire hazards belong in the whole. See also chemical safety.
- Waste oils and storage. Fire load is not only in the kitchen, but also in the back room and at the waste point.
What should a good restaurant emergency plan contain?
Under the Rescue Act, the plan covers, among other things, the conclusions of the hazard and risk assessment, the safety arrangements of the building and of the premises used for the activity, and instructions for preventing accidents and for acting in hazardous situations. In a restaurant this means in practice, for example:
- a short description of the site and operations (customer seats, opening hours, kitchen type)
- identified risks and related measures
- safety arrangements such as escape routes, rescue routes and an agreed assembly point
- Restaurant interiors and their features (lessons from the nightclub fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland)
- first-aid firefighting equipment, detectors and other safety systems
- roles: who calls for help, who guides customers and who directs the rescue service
- staff induction, drills and informing people about the plan
- contact details and an update practice so the plan stays current
A good plan is short enough to use. A thick binder nobody reads will not help on a Friday night.
Tip: Keep a short action sheet visible in the dining room and kitchen. The full emergency plan can be a PDF, on paper or online – what matters is that the up-to-date version is easy to find.
Is the housing company or shopping centre plan enough?
If the restaurant is in a street-level unit or a shopping centre, the property often has its own emergency plan. That does not automatically replace planning for the restaurant’s own operations. The property plan usually focuses on shared spaces, rescue routes and building systems.
The restaurant kitchen, customer seats, staff shifts and opening hours must be addressed with sufficient precision in cooperation with the holder – either as part of the property plan or in a separate document if needed. Otherwise the risk assessment remains incomplete. The same gap often appears where ground-floor commercial units are overlooked in housing-company plans.
Staff turnover is a key practical challenge in restaurants
In hospitality, staff change frequently. If safety instructions live only in one shift manager’s head, the knowledge disappears with the next hire. So the plan should also include:
- induction for new employees (egress, extinguishers, gas shut-off, assembly point)
- clear roles for every shift
- a short refresh, for example at the start of a season or after layout changes
- briefing for external contractors if maintenance or hot work is done in the kitchen
Where needed, staff competence can also be supported with fire safety training.
The most common gaps in restaurant plans
- There is no plan at all, even though there are more than 50 customer seats
- The document is years old and no longer matches the current kitchen or dining layout
- Grease ducts are not mentioned
- Kitchen grease risks and duct cleaning/maintenance are skipped
- Staff have never seen the instructions, let alone practised egress
- The plan sits only in the property manager’s folder, not in restaurant use
- Chemicals and their hazards are missing from the plan
Gaps may surface in regulatory supervision, and they can also matter in insurance matters – for example if the insurer’s protection instructions have not been followed.
Summary
A restaurant emergency plan is both a statutory duty in many sites and a practical tool. When risks, egress, kitchen specifics and staff roles are written clearly, everyday operations are safer and response is faster when something goes wrong.
RISKRAMI prepares emergency plans as expert work: site visit, risk assessment and delivery as paper, PDF or online. That way the document stays available to the organisation even when people change.