A new grilling first for me!


 
DBWallis

DBWallis

TVWBB Super Fan
I've been grilling for more than 35 years, and hit a new milestone tonight!

For the first time, I had to put out my grill with a fire extinguisher :cool:

I had finished grilling some sweet potatoes and some cauliflower for dinner, and had cranked the heat up to high on my trusty Weber Spirit in order to do a reverse sear on some smoked pork loin chops we were making for dinner. I guess I left it on high a little too long, because the drip tray caught on fire!

Luckily the chops were just finished, so I pulled them and turned off the burners. But black smoke started rolling (and I mean rolling!) out of the grill, and I smelled burning plastic, so I grabbed the fire extinguisher from the garage and gave a couple short bursts into the back of the grill just above the drip tray.

A few seconds later the fire re-ignited, so a couple more squirts quelled it once and for all.

As far as I can see, there's no damage to the grill, just a lot of dry chemical inside the cabinet, so I'll pull the grill apart next weekend and give it a good cleaning. Maybe I'll scrape out the drip tray too :p

So, yay me!
 
T Waite said:
Yay for you, indeed!

What was the plastic smell?
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I have no idea. By the time dinner was finished and the grill cooled off, it was too dark to deal with it. There's not a lot of plastic on the grill, so I'm not too worried, but I'll give it a good inspection when I clean up the mess.
 
DBWallis said:
I have no idea. By the time dinner was finished and the grill cooled off, it was too dark to deal with it. There's not a lot of plastic on the grill, so I'm not too worried, but I'll give it a good inspection when I clean up the mess.
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That's happened to me twice in the last year too, I know the smell. I didn't use the fire extinguisher, I must have caught it right at the start & turned it off. I try to use timers now & not leave it on high for more than 5 minutes. Sorry about your luck!
 
It's all good. Dinner was already off the grill, and I finally got my money's worth out of the extinguisher I bought 25 years ago :D
 
First, good on ya' for having the extinguisher handy, DB!! :) I've got one strapped to my Performer, too, and it's only been used once.......in exactly the same scenario as you!! :) I'm in the same boat as Clint, I always set a timer if I'm doing a post-cook burn off.....

BTW, your chops in the Photo Gallery look great! Nice cook!

Rich
 
That happened to me and my LAST experience with GAS....

HOT HOT HOT summer and been using my Smokey Joe and did I mention HOT? well I was cooking some Kabobs that night, so I started the grill, preheat, 10 minutes, well after not using it really all summer, all that grease, and what not, melted into the bottom, from the HEAT... Well, after making the kabobs, I walked by the patio door and saw the ENTIRE grill on fire, ran out and turned off gas, SCARED ME TO DEATH... saw flames dripping from grill, so I panicked and threw grill away from house, and expected the worst, It was actually good, because I tipped the grill and tank was opposite of grill... Next day, I went and bought the 22.5" weber kettle and bought few more since....

Scary, I'm glad I did not get hurt and same with you, never thought about fire extinguisher, but I have one in kitchen now, wife used the hose...

whew, chills just typing this... lol
 
Since I started using GrillGrates this has not happened to me. On the old Genesis Gold C I could pull the grease pan straight out with a pair of channel lock pliers and just
let it burn off. The GrillGrates lets the meat drippings sizzle and hardly any make it through to the grease pan.
 
My neighbor had a hybrid gas/charcoal grill. He cooked quite a bit on it. Last spring, he came out to preheat the gas side. I guess he forgot to clean the bottom out, because when I came out 5 minutes later, he had a grease fire going! Luckily, I had an extinguisher on hand! I beat on his back door, then squeezed as he came running out! I'm pretty sure he would have understood, but I wanted him to see WHY I was extinguishing his ECB! He and his wife thanked me profusely, AND bought me a new extinguisher. Which exactly matches the one he bought himself at the same time! He now owns a newer version of the same old turd, but he does clean it out regularly!
 
It's great you caught it in time. I've had that happen once and yep that black smoke is really thick. In my case I just shut the lid and grabbed the fire extinguisher from the garage but when I got back to the grill it was slowing down so I just let it burn itself out. Now I have a fire extinguisher in the back yard, garage and kitchen.
 
I have had a brinkman propane grill for about 5 years. There is a grease tray under the burners and I have had that thing catch on fire. It's scary. After my experience and reading this post I am going to clean that sucker out this weekend.
 
How corrosive is the fire ext agent? You might not want to wait to at least rinse it off.

Another great reason to use a kettle: Fire? Shut the vents = no fire.
 
Dwain Pannell said:
How corrosive is the fire ext agent? You might not want to wait to at least rinse it off.

Another great reason to use a kettle: Fire? Shut the vents = no fire.
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Most dry chemical fire extinguishers use potassium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), so it shouldn't really be a problem. The stuff is non-toxic too. I lived in a fraternity house in college (25 guys!), and there was a fire in the gas-fired broiler at least once a semester. We'd put the fire out, dust off the bacon (or whatever), and serve it. :D
 
DBWallis said:
Most dry chemical fire extinguishers use potassium bicarbonate or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), so it shouldn't really be a problem. The stuff is non-toxic too. I lived in a fraternity house in college (25 guys!), and there was a fire in the gas-fired broiler at least once a semester. We'd put the fire out, dust off the bacon (or whatever), and serve it. :D
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I was walking home from school back when I was around 15-16 and I found one....took it home and sprayed it in our garage - just a little poof. It covered everything in about 1/4" of dust. That was fun trying to clean up before mom got home. (shake her head / face palm, I'm sure - I was a really smart kid ;) - so bright my father used to call me sun )
 
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