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While summer can be a warm and beautiful time of year, it also comes with added risks. While the sun is baking and grilling everything under its gaze, homeowners are taking advantage of the great outdoors to get back into grilling.
Grilling can be a great way to give your summertime meals an extra kick of flavor while also keeping down the temperatures indoors by moving the cooking outside, but just like in the kitchen it comes with its own set of fire hazards.
Today United Water Restoration Group of Austin, Texas would like to take the time to make sure that the only thing you’re cooking on the grill is savory meats and not your property as the result of an accident due to a fire hazard.
Take a look at your grill and ask yourself if you’re practicing proper grilling safety, or if you’re contributing to a fire hazard. You’ve grilled a thousand times before, how could your grill be unsafe?
Most cooking fires are accidents, and accidents are called accidents because of that lack of intent. It’s better to be safe than sorry, let’s make sure you have this fire hazard effectively wrangled.
A surprisingly common mistake when grilling outdoors is the failure to take distance into account. Homeowners often create a fire hazard for themselves when grilling by having their grills incredibly close to the home, often beneath overhangs and awnings to shelter the person grilling from the hot sun.
This attempt to gain comfort puts the entire property at risk with both propane and charcoal grills, and it is suggested that grills be placed at least 10 feet away from your home and away from dry plants or bushes.
There is an often accepted tradition of ‘cooking off’ the mess left on a grill either immediately after cooking a meal, or just prior to a new grilling session in order to get more flavor into the meat.
While this isn’t necessarily a problem if done carefully, after big holidays or events where there has been a lot of meat going on and off the grill, there can be a considerable amount of fatty buildups.
Where grease fires are a fire hazard indoors more often, outdoors these fatty buildups have the same effect as a grease fire and can become an incredibly dangerous situation on both charcoal and propane grills.
In addition to these handy tips to prevent grilling fire hazards, it’s also a good idea to have a fire extinguisher on hand just in case of a fire emergency.
A fire extinguisher comes with detailed instructions you should familiarize yourself with upon purchase, and you should also refresh yourself with the proper use procedures before cooking to be better safe than sorry.
If you find yourself in a situation where you need fire damage restoration, reach out to United Water Restoration Group of Austin, Texas at (512) 772-2458. We’re available 24/7 to take your call, and our friendly staff is ready to help you today.
