Grills, fire pits and the deck: outdoor fire without the fire department

The month with the most home fires from cooking outdoors is July, and the pattern in the reports is the same every year: the grill was on the deck, under the eave, against the vinyl siding, or the coals went into a plastic can. None of it is complicated, and all of it is the difference between dinner and a claim.

Where the grill goes

• Ten feet from the house, the deck rail, the fence, the eave and anything that hangs over it. That is the standard, and a grill against the siding is the single most common cause of the fires.
• Never under a roof, an awning, a porch ceiling or a tree. Heat and flare-ups rise.
• Never in the garage, never in a screened porch, never inside. Charcoal and propane both produce carbon monoxide; people die every summer from a grill moved under cover in the rain.
• On a level, hard surface. On a wood or composite deck, a grill mat under it, and the ten feet from the rail still applies.

Propane

• Test for leaks every time you change the tank and once at the start of the season: brush soapy water on the hose and the connections with the valve open, and watch for bubbles.
• Open the lid before you light it. Gas that collects under a closed lid makes a fireball when it finds the igniter.
• Turn the tank off at the valve when you finish, not just the burners.
• Store the tank outside, upright, never in the garage or the basement. A spare tank stays outside too.
• A hose that is cracked or a regulator that is rusty is a replacement, not a repair.

Charcoal

• Only charcoal starter, never gasoline, and never more starter on coals that are already lit.
• Coals stay hot for a day. When you are done, close the vents and the lid and let them go out on their own, or douse them thoroughly with water and stir. Ashes go into a metal can with a lid, outside, away from the house, and stay there for a couple of days before they go in the trash. The plastic bin, the paper bag and the cardboard box are how deck fires start at two in the morning.

The grill itself

Clean the grease tray and the grates. Grease fires are the flare-ups that get out of hand, and a tray that has not been emptied all season is a pan of fuel. Keep a box of baking soda or a fire extinguisher rated for grease within reach, and never water on a grease fire.

Fire pits

• Check the local rules. Many towns ban open burning, limit the size, or require a distance from structures, often 25 feet.
• Twenty-five feet from the house, and ten from anything else. Not on a wood deck unless the pit is made for it and sits on a fireproof base, and even then, most Pros say no.
• Never on a windy night, and never left burning. Douse it with water until it is cold to the touch before you go in.
• Only clean, dry firewood. No treated lumber, no pallets, no trash, no leaves. Treated wood gives off arsenic in the smoke.
• A screen on a wood-burning pit, and the chairs far enough back that the embers cannot reach them. Gas fire pits skip most of this and are the safer choice near a house.

The people

A three-foot zone around the grill or the pit where children and pets do not go. Someone watching it, every minute it is lit. Long tools, sleeves rolled up, and nobody who has been drinking managing the fire. The fires that hurt people are the ones nobody was watching.