Fire suppression and control system

In a fire suppression and control system for a cooking unit having an exhaust hood above the cooking unit;

• a nozzle on the hood above the cooking unit for distributing a fire-retardant chemical onto the cooking unit in the event of a fire;
• a source of fire-retardant chemicals spaced from the hood;
• conduit means between the fire-retardant chemical source and the nozzle for delivering a fire-retardant chemical to the nozzle;
• valve means in the conduit means for controlling the flow of the fire-retardant chemical between the source and the nozzle;
• and
• heat-responsive control means in the hood for detecting the presence of a fire in the cooking unit and for actuating the valve responsive thereto to deliver the fire-retardant chemical to the cooking unit,
• the improvement which comprises:
• a flexible fire curtain supported by the hood and adapted to enclose the cooking unit from the room surrounding the cooking unit between the hood and the floor;
• housing means for storing the curtain in folded condition on the hood, including a release means for releasing the stored curtain from the housing means;
• and
• means coupling the heat-responsive control means to the release means to release the curtain from folded condition in the housing means as the fire-retardant chemical is delivered to the cooking unit through the nozzle so that the fire-retardant curtain drops to surround the cooking unit as the fire-retardant chemical is delivered to a fire on the cooking unit.