I was walking back up the path in my back yard after taking out some trash and look over and my neighbor and his wife are standing there with a big deer in the headlights look as a huge grease fire engulfed his gas grill. I yell over "Hey do you have a box of baking soda?" The wife says "yes" and I tell her to grab it as I ran over. Told my neighbor to shut the propane valve off then get back and I doused it with the box and snuffed it out. I guess he had allowed the grease to build up too much and was searing some steaks on high and the whole thing just went up, I'm talking flames 3+ feet high and billowing black smoke. Could have been bad if they had panicked and just let it go. I'm not sure just closing the lid would have helped at all this was raging so much.

Speaking to a friend who is a firefighter, he said they get calls all summer long for these type fires and a lot of people have the grill close to their house or on a wood deck which doesn't help at all.

Keep those grills scraped out, people!

if you're cooking a lot of meat, it's important to scrub out the entire thing, degrease. as grease collects it's fuel waiting to reach the flash point

quote:

Keep those grill scraped out, people!

I scrape the grates each time. In addition, I take out the flame arresters and the burners once a year and clean out the inside with soap water and a hose.

My Dad, on the other hand, just cranks it up to burn off the grease. Eventually, it will ignite grease that you haven't been able to burn off.

this happened to me a few weeks ago, but I just turned off the gas and let itself burn out.

there's nothing flammable nearby so I figured it wasn't doing any harm.

but I'll remember the baking soda trick just in case.

I let my grill run on high for about 10 minutes after cooking is finished to burn off the grease.
Then I clean it right before the next use.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
...the whole thing just went up, I'm talking flames 3+ feet high and billowing black smoke. Could have been bad if they had panicked and just let it go.

Which sounds like what they were doing until you came along as a reactionary force, accessed the situation, took charge, and put decisive measures in place! Well done...Pardon the pun!

Didn't you have to step in re: a similar situation w/ your Father-in-Law's grill last year? Grease Fire Commando you are...

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

Didn't you have to step in re: a similar situation w/ your Father-in-Law's grill last year? Grease Fire Commando you are...

I did, he also wasn't cleaning his grill out like he should have.

Also had one in Sandbridge Beach on vacation last year, I noticed that the grill at the rental house WAS pretty cruddy but I thought I could get away with it while doing hot and fast on a bunch of steaks and that one went up too, ugh. Put that one out by quickly dunking two towels into the pool then threw them over the grill.

It seems to follow me!

Sounds like they did panic, but good thing you knew how to take care of it.

Step one, stop adding fuel to the fire. Turn off the gas and close the lid.

Have something available to douse the fire. I have a bucket of sand.

My Webers gas grills have trays under the burners that direct grease to a foil cup. These trays need periodic cleaning, otherwise they can wind up trapping grease. Also, Weber’s “Flavorizer” bars need occasional replacing as well. Really the bars are there to prevent grease from dripping onto the open burner flames and most grills something that does this. They get holes rusted in them, grease drips on the open flame, and now you’re really getting a good sear in those 80/20 burgers or ribeyes. While learning these things the hard way, I’ve been fortune to not have had any serious consequences.

Just wait, Insurance companies want to ban gas grills due to the liability.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colora...lorado-mountain-hoa/

Ban on gas grills rolling through Colorado mountain HOAs: "These changes affect all of us"

More and more homeowners associations in Colorado's mountain communities are rewriting their policies to ban the use of gas grills by residents as insurance companies increasingly say they won't insure HOAs that allow residents to use gas grills on their decks or balconies.

"It is going to impact tens of thousands of people who live in condo associations," said David Firmin, an attorney whose law firm represents some 2,500 HOAs, primarily in the mountains.

He says the move began six to nine months ago as insurance companies began to look for ways to reduce their risks, especially in high fire zones like Colorado's mountains. The insurance industry has been reacting in part to the Marshall Fire and the massive losses caused by the fire, along with the Maui fire.

"The insurance is really driving this bus," said Firmin. "The perceived risk with these grills is just unacceptable risk for the insurance companies that are losing billions and billions of dollars."

He says in the last six weeks, he has been rewriting rules for an average of ten HOAs per week to ban the use of gas grills. He believes in the next six months, he will likely rewrite rules for 500 to 600 mountain HOAs with similar wording, prohibiting the use of gas grills.

"They will either be required to remove gas grills or they will not get affordable insurance," said Firmin.

The insurance industry estimates that on a national basis, outdoor grills cause about 6,000 fires and $35 million in damage every year. Farmers Insurance estimates that grill fires cost the company $32 million in losses since 2020.

Nick Strong, a commercial insurance risk manager in Steamboat Springs, said he has been warning HOA managers they will have to ban individual gas grills or find themselves without insurance coverage.

"People are emotionally tied to their grills," said Strong. "When you start talking about someone's grill it's like talking about their children or their dog- they're emotionally tied to it. It's something that's going to be a hard transition."

Strong says the Marshall Fire was "Pearl Harbor in the insurance world," showing that even Front Range communities could be susceptible to devastating wildfires.

Strong said he is informing HOA managers that for their 2025 insurance renewals, they will have to institute new guidelines prohibiting anything with an open flame like gas grills or fire pits.

He is planning to issue a notice in early June to HOA managers saying, "By 2025, many (if not all) carriers will require that prohibitions be in place as part of the governing documents on the use of gas grills or similar devices (i.e. open flame) on any balcony, under any overhanging portion or within 10 feet of any structure or overhang. Many carriers already have this requirement for eligibility/loss control in place."

Charcoal and wood grilling devices are already prohibited by all carriers, says Strong.

The National Fire Protection Association fire code has long recommended these restrictions, as do many municipal fire codes.

Both Strong and Firmin say if townhome and condo HOAs decline to abide by the new requirements, they will likely have to seek insurance for their communities on the secondary insurance market where premiums will run ten to 30 times higher than what they are currently paying.

For the time being, many insurance carriers view electric grills as acceptable alternatives to gas grills and some associations are expected to establish central grilling and fire pit areas away from combustible structures.

Tim Huiting, President of an HOA community in Keystone, said when his community had to seek a new insurance carrier this year, "The insurance we finally found came with a requirement that we ban gas grills on decks or within ten feet of the building." Huiting said he and several other homeowners bought electric grills earlier this year and are happy with the results.

"Thus, the gas grill band," said Huiting, "which was very controversial at first, has become less of an issue."

David Firmin says the ripples being felt in mountain HOAs will likely spread."I would ultimately expect to see this everywhere except the eastern plains," said Firmin.

Strong agreed that the gas grill restriction will likely spread: "I think it's going to be consistent across the board and in metro areas."

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:

Huiting said he and several other homeowners bought electric grills earlier this year and are happy with the results.

This guy is FOS

I was in an HOA that banned any sort of gas or charcoal grill and I looked at electric ones and even the high end ones suck. They're a glorified George Foreman grill at best.

I just power washed my grill. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. Glad I did it based on this post.

On trash days, I could cruise my residential areas and often find blazing plastic trash cans. In summer, people would dump hot charcoal into them. In winter, hot fireplace ashes. Only saving grace was the cans did not burn until they were wheeled to the curb.

I was traveling a lot and would grill when I came home on the weekends. I wasn't paying attention to the build up, and it went up in flames.

I was grilling 80/20 burgers, and closing the lid did nothing. There is just too much ventilation in the gas grills to suffocate them.

Luckily I keep a large box of baking soda in the pantry and used that to smother the flames.

I now keep a second box under the grill (and make sure to watch the build up!).

I use a Weber Kettle with charcoal in a Slow N Sear. I've never had a flare up and after you have tasted a steak reverse seared with a pecan wood chunk, gas grills will seem wrong.

Brother in law dumped some charcoal ashes into his garbage can . The ashes were from the night before and he thought they were cooled down and ok to dispose of . Apparently they were still hot enough to ignite something in the can . The can was sitting next to his garage that was clad in vinyl siding . The fire ignited the siding and thank GOD a neighbor saw the flames before it got out of hand .

Another tip-
When you open the LP tank valve, only turn the knob one turn. Friends and I were using a grill at someones cottage and the hose or something broke and there was fire under the grill at the tank.
My friend got a few burns trying to close the valve as it had been opened all the way.

I installed a new cast iron searing grate on my Webber performer a few months ago. It's not been burning off the excess grease like I'm used to. It's always been my practice to let the grill burn itself out (I'm a charcoal guy) unrestricted but monitored after the food is done. This grill isn't coming clean. Scraping with brushes and scrapers isn't doing it either. Yesterday initiating a super hot sear on some fathers day ribeyes I had a near runaway as my kettle lid temp gauge pegged. I had already noticed the heat getting past where I wanted it (I like about 450-500 for the initial sear), and had closed both the upper and lower air vents.

I cautiously increased the distance of other flammable/meltables near the grill and despite my desire to grab my steaks...left that lid closed until the heat was back under 500F.

It seems like I have a charcoal "runaway" event like this about every 2-3 years, just frequent enough to stay in my head to NOT leave my grill unattended.

The steaks ended up on the more done side of medium unfortunately...but I didn't melt my weber performer or burn my house down...so I guess that was an acceptable loss.

That grill is still not really burned clean. I guess I'll have to initiate the pressure washer or sand blaster...or change back to the stock weber style thin stainless.

not a fan of a burn off, stinks something awful, leaves carbon and bad flavor

.

If this is the actual language, I could live with it as I agree that a grill should not be used this close to a building...

"By 2025, many (if not all) carriers will require that prohibitions be in place as part of the governing documents on the use of gas grills or similar devices (i.e. open flame) on any balcony, under any overhanging portion or within 10 feet of any structure or overhang. Many carriers already have this requirement for eligibility/loss control in place."

.

I just leave the hood open on my grill and the next morning, it is spotless. Its like the little people have come and cleaned it. The cat does look pretty happy the next morning.