Mishaps Round the Barby


 
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Stone

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Bren Hickey's post about the exploding concrete got me thinking about some of my mishaps.

Once, when I was grilling, I started to feel in itch on my foot. It got progressively worse and and I tried rubbing it with my other foot, it got painful. Yes, you're right, a little chunk of red-hot fell through the hole and burned its way through my shoe.
 
I lit up my old gasser one February nite, went in the house to mix a cocktail, had a look outside and thought to myself, boy is it ever bright out for a February evening.
Needless to say the grill, tank were on fire
It took 2 5lb fire extinguishers to put out the fire.
Propane tank cracked, do to overfill and cold.
Don't play propane anymore!!!

Cheers
 
OK here are a couple that come to mind:
1. When I was a child we were on a beach in Dorset (UK) that was sort of garvel. Anyway we lit a driftwood fire to cook on and sit round, as we used to. Everything went well – sausages, dampers etc until we started hearing pops from the fire – I was wearing some sort of nylon / polyester trousers (hey – it was the 70’s – I loved them they had sewn in creases and…..) and the next thing I knew an insect bit me on the leg which made me jump. Except that it left a small molten hole in my (prized) trousers that kind of fused to my skin.
That was just the start – gradually the frequency and intensity increased - the damp gravel that the fire was burning on was starting to explode, sending fragments of hot gravel flying. Needless to say we doused the fire PDQ!
Yes – it still sticks in my mind.

2. My wife and I had an impromptu lunch grill in our back garden one sunny summer day with a disposable grill that rests on the ground. Obviously I wasn’t going to use it on the grass as it would leave a rectangular scorch mark, so we naturally grilled on the patio that was made of concrete slabs. It was great as we sat on the ground around it dressed for summer and carried on drinking wine while it burned itself out. Being a careful soul I took the wine glasses indoors before taking the grill to the garden tap to douse it before putting it in the bin. As I did this I heard a scream from my wife, who had taken some of the crockery / detritus indoors and had returned for the rest. We both had bare feet and the spot where the grill had been was no longer obvious – until she stepped on it that is. No serious damage done, just some reddening of the sole of her foot and some choice words about me.

I may add I went through a phase recently of regularly finding the compost heap smouldering away after putting barby ash on it (it counteracts the hen droppings well). Once I only noticed it after three or four days of wondering what the acrid smell was when I took the dog out in the morning and another time I had been out for a walk and wondered where all the smoke was coming from on such a nice day only to find two foot flames licking up from the heap as I came through the gate. Time for the garden hose.
I also remember my brother and I peeing on a camp fire to put it out (we were kids then, honestly)- we never did that again, the smell was dreadfull
 
Well, let's see...I only had 2 minor mishaps that I can think of:

The first was about a year and a half or so ago. I was adjusting the vents on my WSM and I got a little to close to it and my face touched the side of the charcoal bowl...left a nice little red spot.

The second was relatively recently. I was trying to take the bottom grate out of the WSM after I'd just taken my brisket & butt off. The water pan was still in there and it still had water in it. Anyway the pan came off of it holders with my face right over the WSM. I swear it was like slow motion but I did manage to get out of the way before the water hit the coals. It was one hell of a cloud and one big mess everywhere.
 
We have a gas grill semi-permanently mounted on our deck, connected to the house's natural gas line. One night my wife took some steaks or burgers or whatever off the grill, then turned the burners to "high" to burn off the grease. The next morning I walked out onto the deck and noticed, above the lid of the grill, that shimmering effect you see above the road on hot summer days. Yep, the grill had run all night on "high" - the thermometer in the lid didn't register because the entire back of it had melted off. Otherwise, no damage. And if I was concerned about the grill being too close to the wooden deck railing, that unintentional test burn proved that it wasn't.
 
OH MAN! Get the jelly . your WSM looks like toast! Is that just ash /dust or is it DOA man?

Hope you look better. Be careful !! USE SAND!
 
How about this for stupidity? In college I lived on the second level of a two family home. We had a small, tar-shingle terrace. I bought a small hibachi for last-minute burgers and stuff. One morning, when I went to dump the ash, I noticed some rather large chunks still in the hibachi. Being the good recycler I was, I dumped the chunks into the bag of unlit briquets. Good think I skipped class that morning. I soon smelled the cooking briguets and saw that the whole bag was starting to go -- Modified Minion Method. Almost melted through terrace.
 
Had a friend that had his gasser hard plumbed to his natural gas line out in his back yard. Worked great NEVER ran out of gas.

One fine winter's day he looked out into his yard after a snow storm to see a very unusual sight. Everything was covered in freshly fallen snow except for an area several feet around his gasser.

He had left the grill on HIGH to burn off some crud and forgot about it for three weeks !!!!!

Al
 
Yep. did it twice. In my case I could't figure out why it was raining but the top of the grill looked dry.
 
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