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That Wonderful Time of Year! Again! Once again it’s that time of year. When we cook out on the barbecue. When we ride jet-skis on vacation. When we play baseball with the kids. When we enjoy pleasant Michigan summers. I am not trying to "rain on anyone’s parade!" but we all must remember some basic rules for backyard summer safety.
Follow directions exactly for propane grilles. Give this powerful fuel the "respect" it deserves. Propane is a flammable hydrocarbon. It is a great fuel for a grille because it lights easily with very little smoke-precisely why it is popular. It is not the "heavier" type of hydrocarbon like gasoline. Any food cooked over a fire that contained only minor trace amounts of a gasoline-type product would probably taste slightly like that hydrocarbon product. Besides being a vapor at normal temperatures, propane is heavier than air. When released from a container, gaseous propane sinks to the ground and accumulates in low-lying areas like ditches if released outdoors. So how does the chemical properties of propane affect us a backyard chefs? When using a propane grille we must all "light" it first. Sometimes we are surprised by the loud "whoosh" when it ignites. The fuel simply reached a highly-saturated level in the cooking space of our grille and more hydrocarbon product than normal reached ignition temperature simultaneously. But what if it didn’t "light"? We can still hear it "hissing" as it escapes the pressurized cylinder stored underneath our grille. Chances are a slight breeze interfered with the oxygen/propane ratio and it was not in the correct proportions for ignition. Or maybe the ignition source is a little dirty and the spark size was reduced. The best thing to do is stop trying to "light" the grille. Insure that the hinged grille cover stays open and turn off the cylinder of propane. It is usually a silver-colored knurled knob near the neck of the propane tank. This action alone will insure that more fuel is not released from the tank. Allow the grille to "air out" for a few minutes and the unlit trace amounts of propane will mix with normal air and it will become too diluted to be flammable. After several minutes have elapsed try to re-light the grille. Turn on the propane cylinder, adjust a burner control to insure gas flow and use the built-in "striker" to provide a spark to the propane fuel. The resulting soft "whoosh" will tell you that you grille is lit and the first step towards a wonderful cook-out has been accomplished safely. As firefighters we have seen backyard chefs who didn’t "respect" the power of propane. That is why we beg the public to use gas powered barbecue grilles safely. We all want to enjoy these wonderful Michigan summers.
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When
using barbecues, extra care and caution must be exercised. No one
wants to spend time in an Emergency Department when we can be
enjoying this summer!
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Copyright 2008, City of Novi, Michigan
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