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12 replies

Grease Fire

FM Former Member
Had a large grease fire today and need some input please. I cooked briskets in my fec 100 last night. They went on at 7:30 and I pulled them at 8:30 this morning. With the smoker holding at 210, I put on a log of bologna and some rope sausage along with two racks of spares. I pulled the bologna and sausage off at 11am and left the ribs cooking. At 1pm I had a large grease fire that I had to use an extinguser to put out. I have cooked this way several times with no problem. In fact, I have ran the smoker 22 hours continusly several times with no problem. My question is, do any of you load your smoker at night, go home and sleep and pull the food the next morning? After this happened today, I'm afraid to load up at night and go home. I have a small que joint, and I bought the fec100 so I could cook while sleeping, pull the briskets off when I get to work, wrap and rest then serve. I always change the foil each time I turn the unit off, clean the pot, etc. Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.
Allan
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T trucky1008Member
I'm surprised you got a grease fire at such a low cooking temp. Most fires I've seen reported came while cooking at high temps (i.e. crisping the skin on chicken at 375+). Is it possible that your firepot overflowed and hot pellets spilled onto the floor of the cooker igniting grease? I ran my FEC for 36 hours straight last weekend and stirred the pot a few times to keep pot from overflowing. It's also important that your FEC is level so that grease flows properly into the drip pan.
FM Former Member
I'd saw it's more than rare to have a grease fire at those temps.

You need to analyze 1) what caught fire and 2) how.

The what has to be grease. But from what? The brisket, it should have drained away if the unit was level and the trough wasn't blocked.

Look at where the fire specifically was and try to figure out what grease collected there or caught fire.

The only way I know of at 210 for grease to catch fire is it to get into the pot.

Make sure you vent has a cap so wind doesn't blow back down.
FM Former Member
The pipe going through the roof is capped but from the inside of the smoker, I can feel air coming in at the exhaust. The pot was clean, meaning I did not see grease in it. By the time I caught the fire, it was blazing so bad, I could not tell where it started. When I opened the door, flames shot out. I grabbed a fire ext. and put the fire out. The smoker is level, in fact it falls some toward the drain hole. It was very windy yesterday and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. I've cooked in strong winds before with no problem. I would like to cook briskets tonight, but I'm leary about leaving it cooking all night.
FM Former Member
Just trying to figure this out. Briskets and butts @ 225 won't cause a fire.

Grease got to the fire, so you need to look at that. did it drip directly on the fire? Was the drip pan removed allowing direct dripping onto the fire.

Grease just won't combust at such a low temp, it has to get direct flames.

Never had a fire at those temps, so you need to look for some little details that something else happened.

We've tried through the forum, so maybe a call to CS since you're having ignitor issues also (probably a result of the fire)?
FM Former Member
No,
Did not remove the pan and have not noticed any other problem that would have caused this fire. The bottom pan had it's normal amount of grease, so I know it was draing. I am getting a lot of ash on the floor of the cooker after each cook, and I notice a lot of sparks flying when I open the door of the smoker. It was very windy that day, so I'm wondering if a spark could have ignited the grease on the drip pan. Still clueless!!

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