Experienced my first grease fire (my fault)

[Bradley Mack]

I usually keep my grills polished and the ash catchers free of debris.

Today I decided to grill up some burgers at 350º F using the bottom rack, which I seldom use. Pre-heated the Smokefire, threw the burgers on and waited. I never leave my kits unattended for more than a few seconds for hot and fast cooks.

I noticed almost immediately the burgers dripping onto the flavourizer bars and the flames dancing under the burgers. The flames shot out of the sides of the fire pot guard and upwards towards the grill. It was at this moment, I really noticed the grease sitting on the upper grate rail, when I thought to myself “I wonder if that could catch fire?”

Moments later, that‘s exactly what happened. Nothing catastrophic, but had I walked away for a few mins, it could have been. I started shuffling the burgers back onto a pan, when the Smokefire decided the flames were too hot. Code E5 and she started to shut off.



”My fault” I said out loud.

Started the charcoal in my E6 and continued on without any casualty burgers.

Let this be a lesson to not only clean out the bottom of the grill, but to degrease your grates and rails.

 

[John K BBQ]

Glad you were able to salvage your burgers - it's always good to share not only the good results, but also the not so good ones so we can learn from "things gone wrong".

 

[Steve Hoch]

I've only had a couple of evacuate the grill type grease fires on my Genesis 1000 grill over the twenty plus years I've been cooking on one. It does happen and will happen no matter what. The best thing any of us can do besides keeping the grill clean is to just pay attention.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

I’m glad you admitted the operator error to your smokefire, I have muttered the same to various grills and stoves over the years.

 

[LMichaels]

Just did a high heat "finish" on a ribeye yesterday on the Z Grill. This is something I like about either one (MM or Z). I think you would have to literally try to make a fire. Even when in the 450 to 500+ range. Perhaps the MM could be slightly more prone as the fire pot does not have a flame deflector directly over it as the Z does. But then again I am pretty careful. They get vacuumed after every 2nd or 3rd cook (depending on length of previous cooks). IOW I would not let one of them go for 2 cooks if the previous were briskets cooking for 12 hours+ But, on avg I take the grates out and the grease tray vacuum the fire pot, and the oven, give the grease tray a quick scrape, wipe the grates and or brush them. Slap it all back together. Don't think I spend more than 5 or 6 min. Another weird thing I noticed. The grates don't get that hard crusty impossible to clean carbon. I can simply brush them with the Libman brass brush, followed up with paper towels dampened with a water and little Dawn dish soap.