After a grease flare-up reaches the range hood: cleaning up an Eastside kitchen

A grease flare-up that reaches the hood is over quickly, and the hood looks like the only casualty. The harder question is what happened above it. An Eastside kitchen could be venting through a wall or the roof of an older Lake Hills or Somerset house, through a long run above a big open kitchen, or into a condo tower's ductwork in downtown Bellevue or Kirkland. Each one can hide fire and residue you will not see from the stove.

This guide covers a flare-up that is out, and what you can safely clean. A fire that burned into cabinets or the wall is a different job; start with kitchen fire cleanup: the first 72 hours.

Make sure it is out

1. Turn the burner off and leave the lid on the pan. Never carry a burning pan or put water on grease.
2. If flames entered the hood, call 911, even if it looks out, and say the fire reached the range hood. Fire can travel inside a duct and escape through its seams into concealed spaces.
3. Check the cabinet and wall above the hood with the back of your hand. Heat, blistered paint or a smell of burning plastic means get out and call.
4. Shut off the hood's power at the panel, or unplug it in the cabinet above if you can reach the plug safely. Do not run the fan.
5. In a tower, tell the building, whether or not an alarm went off.
6. Photograph everything before you wipe anything: the hood, its underside, the filters, the cabinet above, the ceiling and every room that smells. If you may file a claim, keep burned filters and parts until the adjuster has seen them.

Let the metal cool completely and give the kitchen a few hours of open windows before you start.

Read the damage before you clean

A cleaning job looks like a brown or yellow film on the hood's underside, greasy filters that are still flat, and a smell mainly in the kitchen.

Not a cleaning job looks like a warped hood, a melted light lens, brittle or scorched wire insulation, charred grease up inside the opening, a scorched cabinet or black soot across the ceiling. Stop at any of those and skip to the call list below.

Step by step: degreasing the hood and filters

Wear nitrile gloves, an N95 respirator and eye protection. You need a degreasing dish soap or a kitchen degreaser labeled safe for your hood's metal, non-scratch pads, microfiber cloths, paper towels, a flashlight and a bucket.

1. Confirm the power is off. Try the switch to be sure.
2. Take out the filters, set them on a towel and look at them against a light. Set aside any that are warped or burned through.
3. Remove what comes off by hand, such as grease cups and light covers, as your manual shows. Leave wiring and the motor mount alone.
4. Soak the good filters in hot water with degreasing detergent for 10 to 20 minutes, brush them, rinse them and let them dry fully. Broan's manual, for one, calls for a hot detergent solution and says its aluminum filters are dishwasher safe. Skip caustic oven cleaner on aluminum, which it can etch and darken.
5. Wipe out loose residue inside the canopy with paper towels so you are not just spreading it.
6. Degrease the inside. Put the cleaner on a cloth rather than spraying it into the hood, so it stays away from the motor and wiring. Work back to front, repeat as needed, then wipe with a clean damp cloth and dry.
7. Vacuum the fan if your manual allows it. Leave the blower's removal to a technician unless the manual shows you how.
8. Clean the wall, cabinets and ceiling. Try a dry soot sponge in straight strokes first. If it lifts the film, finish that way. If it smears, the residue is oily, so switch to a mild degreaser on a cloth and work from the top down.
9. Leave the filters out and the power off until you have checked the duct opening.

Check the duct opening

Hold a flashlight up to the opening, or put your phone on video and lift it inside.

• Usually fine: a thin, even film of grease on bare metal. Wipe as far as your arm reaches.
• Stop and call: char, bubbled or flaking grease, a damper flap that is stuck or bent, melted tape or a melted plastic transition.
• Wrong material: manufacturers such as Broan say to use only metal ductwork. Plastic should be replaced whether or not it burned.
• Nothing there: a hood that blows air back into the kitchen through a front or top grille is recirculating. You have only the filters and fan to worry about, and the smoke stayed in the house.

Then follow the run as far as you safely can. Look at the wall or roof cap from the ground for soot or a damaged flap. If you have a safe way into the attic and it is not hot or smoky, check where the duct passes through. Broan also warns that a hood should never vent into an attic, so a duct that simply ends up there needs fixing. A downdraft vent or island hood may run under the floor or above the ceiling, which you will not be able to inspect yourself. In a condo tower, stop at the opening and call the manager.

When the duct is clean and sound, put the dry filters back, restore the power and run the fan for a few minutes while you watch and smell for anything off. Going forward, wash the filters regularly and keep a lid within reach of the stove.

Typical costs on the Eastside

These are typical Puget Sound ranges, not quotes. Prices vary with the hood, the duct route and how far the smoke went.

• Your own cleaning supplies: usually $30 to $80.
• New mesh or baffle filters: roughly $15 to $60 each.
• Charcoal filters for a ductless hood: roughly $15 to $40.
• New hood: from about $150 for a basic model to well over $1,000 for an island or pro-style unit, plus installation.
• Camera check of the duct: commonly $150 to $400.
• Replacing a duct run: commonly $300 to $1,500, depending on the route.
• Professional smoke cleaning: from several hundred dollars for a kitchen-only job to the low or mid thousands when residue reached the main floor.

Compare the total with your deductible before you decide whether to file; the insurance guide to the first 72 hours explains how a claim runs. Where the claim is covered, restoration is $0 upfront on covered claims - insurer billed directly - deductible applies.

When to call a professional

Call a restoration company, or an electrician where noted, when:

• The duct shows char or you cannot see the run at all and flames went into it.
• The cabinet above the hood is scorched, blistered or smells of melted plastic.
• Wiring, a switch or an outlet nearby is discolored or warm. Call an electrician first.
• The odor is still strong after two or three days of airing out and cleaning, or it has reached bedrooms and closets. Smoke odor removal explains why cleaning has to come first.
• The furnace ran during the fire. Residue can travel through the ducts in a large open-plan house, and smoke and soot cleanup covers what that involves.
• The house was built before 1978. Do not sand or scrape paint that may contain lead, and do not scrub a textured ceiling that may contain asbestos.
• Someone in the household has asthma or a heart or lung condition and the smell is not going away.

Kitchen and small fire cleanup covers how the work runs, including an honest read on whether you need a crew at all. Dispatch covers Bellevue, Kirkland and the rest of the Eastside any hour at (425) 842-3483, or text (844) 543-5757.