Well, last night I pulled the chronic dumb*ss maneuver. Monday night, I did some steaks and used the sideburner to boil some corn. When I took the corn off, I thought I had shut off the burner. After supper, I went out and shut off the grill and lowered the cover on the sideburner (2007 Genesis). Last night, I went to burgers and some more corn and noticed what looked like ash on top of the sideburner lid. I promptly ended up with three burned fingers from trying to brush it off. The burner had been on full tilt with the lid closed for 24 hrs. Lid will need some cleaning and I just ordered a new knob since the original was scorched on one side closest to the burner. Live and learn. Ate supper with one hand and one in a bowl of cold water.
I did something similar a couple of times with my previous grill: no injuries, but darned annoying to get ready to fire the grill up, only to find the LP gas tank is empty because I forgot to turn it off last time, especially if it was a new tank and the spare hasn't been replaced yet.
Since then, I have adopted a couple of procedures that have helped avoid the issue.
I have a repeating 5 minute timer set on my watch, which I start as soon as I turn the gas on. I find a 5 minute reminder quite helpful for gauging cooking, as its easy to get distracted and forget something is on the grill and 5 minutes is probably the shortest time I ever grill anything for, except eggs. However, the main benefit is when we sit down to eat after cooking and I turn the grill up to maximum to burn off residue. The timer lets me know that the grill is still burning and I don't switch the timer off until I turn the gas off. So, even if I miss the first alarm due to conversation or other distraction, I get a reminder 5 minutes later that gas is still burning, and so on until I do turn the gas off.
The second procedure is always to put the fabric cover on the grill after I am finished. That can only go on after the grill has cooled, so its just another reminder that the gas has been turned off.
I won't say haven't had my fingers burned occasionally
but, since adopting these as part of my "grilling routine" a couple of years ago, I have never left the gas on once.
If anyone has any other "tricks" to avoid this happening perhaps we should start another thread on "Making sure the gas is off".