Just want to remind ALL BGE folks to be careful when cooking on their Big Green Egg

whldch

What a story. I will be moving my BGE away from the soffits tonight. As careful as we may be it only takes one error. Thanks for sharing

SaintJohnsEgger

I'm glad you guys are safe. Property can be replaced.

My Egg sits on my back porch which is tile over concrete when not in use. When cooking it is rolled out onto the cool-deck surrounding my pool. So, it sits on concrete with the vent facing the pool. Its up next to the house when cooking which is all Hardy Plank (concrete again) over a steel frame.

I leave it out overnight with the fire snuffed out then I check it the next morning before storing it on the porch again.

Not much chance of a fire but it never hurts to be cautious - i am going to get a fire extinguisher for the Egg table.

I have a friend that is is an arson/fire investigator and I think I'll speak with him about my setup.

fishlessman

it actually amazes me how many homes dont have an extinguisher handy. mines mounted on the kitchen wall, its big, red, ugly, and ive used it in the kitchen before. and i bring it to work for the fire guy to inspect yearly with the cellar extinguisher, the one at camp, and the ones in the boat. grew up in a welding shop, i have extinguishers everywhere

YEMTrey

Yep, Have an extinguisher under the kitchen sink and another just inside the door to the garage.

Ladeback69

Carolina Q said:

onedbguru said:

HeavyG said:

fishlessman said:

bases can crack with low temps too, had a fire from a cracked base doing a low and slow overnight, fortunately the fire went out for whatever reason on the deck. eggs dont belong on decks

Or wooden tables.

When I had mine on a deck (and my son does now), we use 3x5 piece of hardibacker board (used as underlayment for tile (walls or floor)) it is concrete-esk and fire retardant. 

Not enough. Chris Cappel (@Dizzy Pig) had his egg on his driveway a good 10-15 away from his open garage door. Lost his house.

WOW! I thought I was ok with mine being 6 or 7 feet away and being on a concrete patio, guess not.  I try to make sure the vents on my egg are closed and now I really will after reading these story's.  

THEBuckeye

tikigriller said:

Your Egg wasn't close to a tanerite Supply was it?

LOL. That's what I was thinking.

(laughing at that video, not the fire) 

fishlessman

this is the chart ive been using and have posted before, down near the bottom is turkey
http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/meat-doneness-chart/

bhedges1987

I got zero sleep last night for my low and slow because of this post.  My egg is on a challenger cart on a wood deck, under a patio.

Canugghead

Thanks for the reminder, glad no one was hurt.

When I started egging 9 years ago I could have burned down the entire subdivision, sketchy details... left a chimney starter in the (thin) metal shed next to my plastic lump bin, didn't realise the 'extra' lump in the chimney had 'sparks', brilliant! Few days later I noticed to my horror, the side of the lump bin was melted and the chimney was empty! The shed is one foot from the back wood fence that connects with nothing but wood fences of the entire block of houses 

Also fwiw, fire extinguishers can help but I haven't seen a case where it did in all the mishaps or close calls reported in this forum. When you're sleeping even a fire truck parked on your driveway can't help! just saying

KiterTodd

Thanks for the share and the safety reminders.

While mine is on a deck, it now sits on top of a piece of concrete board as suggested on this forum.  (hardibacker board, $9 at HD and a better solution than the much more expensive mats and such on Amazon)

Spaightlabs

I'm a BGE house-burner-downer as well.  No crack in the egg, sitting in a wooden table on top of concrete paver with an air gap.  Paver cracked at some point due to heat/thermal shock which apparently allowed enough heat to conduct itself to the wood framing beneath the paver during an all night cook.  Shut the egg down at 10:00 am -  15 hours after the egg was closed down we were on fire - total loss of property.  Coin flip type deal.  If the table had tipped backwards after starting on fire instead of towards the house it would have been fine...

Glad you got everyone out ok.  

fishlessman

Canugghead said:

Thanks for the reminder, glad no one was hurt.

When I started egging 9 years ago I could have burned down the entire subdivision, sketchy details... left a chimney starter in the (thin) metal shed next to my plastic lump bin, didn't realise the 'extra' lump in the chimney had 'sparks', brilliant! Few days later I noticed to my horror, the side of the lump bin was melted and the chimney was empty! The shed is one foot from the back wood fence that connects with nothing but wood fences of the entire block of houses 

Also fwiw, fire extinguishers can help but I haven't seen a case where it did in all the mishaps or close calls reported in this forum. When you're sleeping even a fire truck parked on your driveway can't help! just saying

  reheating some pulled pork in the oven thats never used because of having an egg a mouse had saved up about a 1/4 bag dry dog food under the burner, opened the door and got hit with a fireball. kinda happy i had that extinguisher ready. lost a tray of bubonic plague de pork butt, but saved the cluny range

Focker

fishlessman said:

it actually amazes me how many homes dont have an extinguisher handy. mines mounted on the kitchen wall, its big, red, ugly, and ive used it in the kitchen before. and i bring it to work for the fire guy to inspect yearly with the cellar extinguisher, the one at camp, and the ones in the boat. grew up in a welding shop, i have extinguishers everywhere

Same here, one in the kitchen, one in the camper.  Carbon monoxide and smoke detectors.  Had a scare, fireman had a meter on my burners, oven.  You would be surprised how much they put out when heating up, or on low.  Same with a vehicle engine backing out of the garage.  That was the culprit for my scare which required O2 for a while in the rig, and sleeping at a friends house to clear it out.

Worked in an industrial coatings plant for 5 years.  October was fire extinguisher training in the field with the Moline FD.  So now, I make it my routine.  Every October, replace batteries, detectors, in both home and camper.  Every two years it's BLS certification too.  

I run multiple fires on concrete simultaneously, I love to play with fire.  A few nights ago I had 3 outside(egg, kbq, firepit), plus my oven seasoning CI.  But I'm prepared to handle things if they get out of hand.

Jeffroe189

This post is scaring me. I roll my egg out of the garage and use it. Then let it cool off in the driveway for a few hours and right back in the garage it goes. I do not really have anywhere else to put it without leaving it out in the driveway all night.

This post has got me thinking of what I can do to be more safe.

GrateEggspectations

Part of my incentive to get an MM was the ability to do safer overnight low and slows - my Large sits in a wooden table on a wooden deck attached to my house and I wouldn't dare attempt one with it.

Have only done one unattended overnight low and slow on the MM thus far. I set it in the middle of a wet lawn on top of a ceramic tile about 15 feet from the house with the vents open only a crack and the screen completely closed.

Nonetheless, the concept of an unattended kamado makes me nervous - apparently, with good reason.

To the extent possible, my rule of thumb is that if the kamado is fired up, it's within my line of sight. Obviously, this gets tricky for long cooks and generally means that overnight cooks are nights for which I simply forego sleep.

johnnyp

Glad that you and your family are safe. 

Bte

Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I feel better about everything - you all are so knowledgeable and supportive - it is greatly appreciated. 

SmokeyPitt

KiterTodd said:

Thanks for the share and the safety reminders.

While mine is on a deck, it now sits on top of a piece of concrete board as suggested on this forum.  (hardibacker board, $9 at HD and a better solution than the much more expensive mats and such on Amazon)

@KiterTodd - did you paint the backer board?  If so, do you have to use a special paint? 

Canugghead

@fishlessman not trying to downplay the value of extinguishers, rather it was my attempt at stressing the importance of caution... prevention is better than cure  

Carolina Q

For those of you who are worried about leaving your egg unattended on overnight cooks, consider a turbo cook. My last butt was an 8 or 9 pounder. I was going to start the cook low and slow (250°) and go to bed, but couldn't get myself motivated so I just went to bed intending to get up early and put the butt on.

Didn't happen. It was about 10:30 AM before I got it going! So, I started it at 300° and before long, I bumped it up to 310° as I recall. Most turbo cooks are at 350°, but I didn't get anywhere near that. The cook was done by 5:30-6PM, no overnight, no unattended fire (though I was indoors most of the time). The taste and texture was the same as it is with any lo n slo.

I did use my DigiQ (because I have one), but it really isn't necessary for all day cooks. Assuming you're home... you ARE home whenever the grill is going... AREN'T YOU?  Just walk outside occasionally and check temp. If it was stable to start, most likely, it'll stay right where you want it. If it doesn't, you can fix it. And while you're checking, make sure the only thing burning is the lump!

bhedges1987

Spaightlabs said:

I'm a BGE house-burner-downer as well.  No crack in the egg, sitting in a wooden table on top of concrete paver with an air gap.  Paver cracked at some point due to heat/thermal shock which apparently allowed enough heat to conduct itself to the wood framing beneath the paver during an all night cook.  Shut the egg down at 10:00 am -  15 hours after the egg was closed down we were on fire - total loss of property.  Coin flip type deal.  If the table had tipped backwards after starting on fire instead of towards the house it would have been fine...

Glad you got everyone out ok.  

That sounds odd.  You did a low and slow cook, shut the vents down and 15 hours later you had a fire?  Two hours tops after a low and slow my egg is completely cool.

Even during a low and slow my ceramic is warm - not hot.  Can't imagine it producing enough heat, especially without a crack to get a piece of concrete hot enough to catch the wood table on fire below it 15 hours later.

Carolina Q

And as I recall @Spaightlabs story, it had been raining all day too!

Canugghead

@bhedges1987 I think the fire came from the wood below the cracked paver, not from the egg.  @Carolina Q I think the table top and egg itself sheltered the 'ticking time bomb' below the cracked paver from the rain.

northGAcock

Glad you are around to share the story....and reminder to us all. Thanks for sharing and all the best with the rebuild.

Spaightlabs

@bhedges1987 - you are correct  - that should say 'low and slow and short clean burn' I was typing on my phone and fat finger deleted that.

Well...turns out my memory sucks...I would have sworn to God that I had done a butt overnight before the fire...I looked at my original post and it was a bunch of different stuff - lamb roast, wings, burgers - all 350-375 temp type stuff...not low and slow at all...

gmac

fishlessman said:

it actually amazes me how many homes dont have an extinguisher handy. mines mounted on the kitchen wall, its big, red, ugly, and ive used it in the kitchen before. and i bring it to work for the fire guy to inspect yearly with the cellar extinguisher, the one at camp, and the ones in the boat. grew up in a welding shop, i have extinguishers everywhere

I'm also gonna suggest that while small extinguishers are better than nothing I think anything under 5 lbs is a once or nothing problem. If you do it wrong the first time there isn't much chance to get it with a second blast. I actually have 2 five pounders in the kitchen, one under each sink, plus one on every level and one in each garage plus CO2 and smoke detectors. 

To to the OP. Very sorry and glad your house is ok. My father was that insomniac a few years ago that spotted the neighbors garage on fire. This one was arson but luckily he got the fire department there before anything really bad happened. Something to be said for neighborhood watch. 

SemolinaPilchard

I was just at Lowe's and saw this.
http://mysafetyiq.com/

bhedges1987

Went outside and rearranged my mats. Thinking about putting in a little 3" piece of metal to go across the back of my challenger cart - just in case the egg ever cracked completely during a cook. Thinking it would not let any coal fall out the back. The front of my challenger cart I have about 9" of grill mat covering my deck. 

I do a LOT of over night cooks. 

Star_TrEGG

SmokeyPitt said:

KiterTodd said:

Thanks for the share and the safety reminders.

While mine is on a deck, it now sits on top of a piece of concrete board as suggested on this forum.  (hardibacker board, $9 at HD and a better solution than the much more expensive mats and such on Amazon)

@KiterTodd - did you paint the backer board?  If so, do you have to use a special paint? 

@KiterTodd Although I have a mat underneath my LBGE, I may replace it with a HardieBacker if it does a better job of preventing potential fires.  Do you happen to have a photo of your set up available to share with the forum?

SemolinaPilchard

A neighbor across the street has a Weber on a wooden deck, a Samsung washing machine, and a Samsung phone. His brother calls him Carlos Danger.