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Grease fire

FM Former Member
Yikes, had a grease fire in the FE-100 today. I think it was because the cooker was on a street facing the center of the street, so it was slightly off level with the front of the cooker lower than the back, I think grease built up in the front of the cooker and caught fire. I was cooking a full load of chicken at 325. Had done overnight 8 briskets and then emptied the grease pan before starting the chickens.

As far as I can tell, nothing was damaged, but the cooker did get really hot and I'm going to test tomorrow to see if the temperature sensor was damaged. I had to put it out with a fire extinguisher. Dr. Don Iverson (local BBQ'r) had a good suggestion - always have a big box of baking soda handy with cooking - you can douse the fire and not necessarily lose all your product.

The bad news for Cookshack is that it happened at an "Operation BBQ for the Troops" event that was being filmed for the "BBQ with Bobby Flay" show - and they filmed the fire and me putting it out. Hopefully it won't rate any airtime. I had earlier shown them the cooker and talked about how great it was. Sorry for the negative publicity (if it gets shown).

Tom Chilton
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FM Former Member
Had a big fire myself a few weeks ago doing 8 14 lb rib-eyes. Fried three thermapen probes but did not think about the built in probe. I have been doing some testing and it appears the builtin probe is running about 30 degrees low compared to some real fancy new armoured high temp probes from thermapen. Maybe this is why my batch of chicken came out blackened because the temp is running much higher than the dial setting.
FM Former Member
Do you think the temp sensor was affected by the fire, or was it always running about 30 degrees low?

Duck - what do you think caused the fire you had? Sounds like your unit was full and maybe you were cooking at a higher temp? I had a full load of chicken and was cooking at 325. It was hot out and the unit was in the direct desert sun (we were at 29 Palms Marine Base). Like I said, I suspect it had to do with the unit not being level, but I'm wondering if cooking a full load at a higher temp could have something to do with it also. I'd like to know for future reference what not to do.
FM Former Member
I was also running with a full load and high temp. Had two 14 lb whole rib-eyes on each shelf, eight total. I initially cranked it up to 400 degrees, wanted a nice hot crust type finish (Not as hot as I ended up with). I believe the combination of the hot temp and eight of those guys dripping caused the blowup. After fighting back the flames I restarted at lower temps and worked my way back up and saved the cook. I don't think I will use the lower rack again with real high temps if it is full of product. Still working on testing the temps right now, going to spend the day seeing what exactly is happening with this cooker regarding dial setting, digital readouts and actual temp in the pit right next to the probe. It looks right now that the probe will need to replaced.
FM Former Member
Is it just me or does the FEC100 seem fireprone? Is this mentioned in the manual? Im not trying to put down this cooker, but in doing a search on this topic, many folks here have had this problem happen to them. The common element seems to be large cooks and temps OVER 375 degrees. And isnt the cooker supposed to be able to handle more just by it's size?

bob
FM Former Member
You can have a fire in any kind of pit. When the "Cuz" (largest mobile BBQ pit in the world) came to California from Texas for a BBQ for the Troops event, it had a fire in it. I've seen fires in Klose pits too. The one I had I would chalk up to operator error.
1. The pit wasn't level, so grease drippings would drip down, miss the drip pan, and accumulated in the front of the pit.
2. I had cooked a full load of briskets right before I did the chicken, and didn't change the foil on the drip sheet. When I was cleaning it out after I got home, there was a thick layer on the foil.
3. I probably had too much chicken in the pit (every rack was full and then some).

I probably would react differently to the fire if it happened again too. First, I'd unplug the unit and cover the exhaust and try to smother it. If that didn't work, I'd use baking soda (which I'll now have a big box of when I'm cooking) so I wouldn't lose all the chicken. If that didn't work, then I'd use the fire extinguisher.

I think next time I'm using it more like an oven at high heat, I'll put the meat in pans to control the grease flow.

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