Hey guys!
I recently got a evening phone call from a seriously dear/best friend who was casually cooking on her grill. Now, I am not looking to put her on blast so I am going to change her name to Sally.
So Sally and I where on the phone chit chatting about stuff, and both of us are knocking back a few brewski’s, then suddenly I hear Sally yell to her kid to get a glass of water… Well, technically it went more like “OH Sh@#! GET ME A HUGE GLASS OF WATER! HURRY! SH#%!”. Now Sally and I live in the same city and kinda close to each other, so I was forced to ask “what the heck is going on?” Praying she isn’t going to burn down the city.
That’s the moment Sally had told me she needed to throw water on the grill fire! Now I could’ve been a huge jerk and been like “that’s cool Sally have at it”, but I wasn’t, I was like “NO DEAR LORD PLEASE DON’T!!! ARE YOU NUTS?!?!”
So in light of Sally’s terrible mistake or her potential to burn down her house… This post, Sally is for you!
Here Are 5 Steps To Take If You Have A Grill Fire!!!
- DO NOT PUT WATER ON IT! While a fire is a fire and your gut instinct is to grab for water, in a grill is much more likely a grease fire and we all learned that water doesn’t mix with grease.
- Turn the grill to off. Shutting the flow of fuel to your grill will allow the fire to just burn the grease.
- Shut the lid (if possible). Shutting the lid simply cuts down on the oxygen the fire needs to burn.
- Shut the fuel off. Turn the propane or gas off! If it’s coal, the shutting of the venting system will also let the fire burnout.
- Take a moment & breath. If the fire is still going strong you can dump baking soda on it.
And the BEST WAY TO NOT have a grill fire is…. (insert cool drum roll). CLEANLINESS!
It’s true, your fire was most likely started from grease. You know all that wonderful fatty delicious meat you cooked about a week ago? Well that meat had fats in it and those fats once cooked leaked and dripped all over creating the most wonderful place to start a fire.
Now we aren’t talking so clean that I can put it back on my showroom floor, but clean it following these steps.
- Turn the grill on (either before you cook on it or after you cook on it, before is preferred because the grease protects the grates when not in use)
- Place foil shiny side down on the grates (this concentrates the heat back down on the grates)
- Monitor for around 15 min. The grill will start smoking . Pro Tip: White smoke is good, Black smoke is a grease fire! Turn grill off and wait….do not open the lid!
- Turn grill off
- remove foil
- Use a grill brush or stone (we carry both in our store) to gently remove the food and gross from the grates (at this point, most of the grease, and food particles should have burned away leaving nothing more than ashes)
- Remove and dump the grease tray
- Sit back and relax!
See… It’s really not that hard and soon you will actually be in the habit of doing that!
So in short.. Don’t EVER THROW WATER on a grill fire!
You’re Welcome,
Dave