Here is a guest post from my husband, Bradford. I have to say he was quite calm and handled the grill fire VERY well!
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On Friday we were having couples over for dinner and I went outside to fire up the grill and cook the pork tenderloin before our guests arrived. We have been grilling a lot lately, but my grill surface was in poor shape (rust ), so I have been rolling out aluminum foil to cover the grates and grilling on that. Also, the grease trap needed to be cleaned, but I didn’t think it was that bad.
I spread out the foil, lit the grill, closed the top and went inside for final food prep and to let the grill get warm. I went back outside about 10 minutes later (got distracted) and the grill was warm….on fire warm!
The foil burned and dropped on to the grease pan and ignited it. Thick black smoke was bellowing out and turning the stainless steel black. The thermometer was showing 700 degrees, but I bet it was hotter than that. I called for Kelly to bring me the fire extinguisher and got to work. First, I cut off the gas. Next, I used the extinguisher on the grease fire. Finally, after a minute and not seeing any more flames, I opened the door to let the heat out and the smoke clear.
This is what I would term a wake up call.
In our house, we have a tornado plan and a fire evacuation plan. We didn’t, however, have a put out the fire plan, other than a fire extinguisher under the sink. Kelly knew exactly where it was and moved without hesitation. As for the fire, it was grease and I knew NOT TO THROW WATER on it and to keep the lid shut (Thanks Mom for sending me the video on kitchen grease fires last year). We will now have an extinguisher in the kitchen and by the grill.
The routine of grilling had numbed me to the potential problems that can rise up (unattended fire, distractions, and dirty grease trap). We did however, have a fire extinguisher, communicated clearly and calmly and knew enough about what kind of fire it was to not compound the problem.
The dinner went on as planned with the use of our neighbors grill, we had a great time, and nobody was hurt.
Photo Credit: EveryStockPhoto
Boy, that’s a nice neighbor you have to loan you her grill AND watch your children that night! 🙂