HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Huntsville Fire Marshal Dan Wilkerson says it's important to leave a three-foot safety zone around the grill, and make sure no kids or animals are nearby.
"There is a radiant heat that comes off of those and could ignite material on your house on fire. Also, you never want to grill under an overhang that's going to heat up that overhang to where it may reach the ignition temperature and catch your house on fire."
Propane and charcoal grills should only be used outdoors and remember to properly dispose charcoal.
"A lot of people don't understand that even in a pile of ash that comes out of your grill or your fireplace, there still could be a hot timber in there and we've had several fires where that stuff is disposed of in the green garbage can and then the green garbage can catches on fire because gets oxygen and rekindles."
And if things do go bad, know how to safely put out the fire.
"A lot of times when you're cooking on the grill, you're producing grease and the last thing you want to do with grease fires is throw water on it. What I recommend is if it's a gas grill shut the gas off to the grill, close the lid, you know, try to limit the oxygen getting to it as much as possible. Anytime you throw water onto a grill that's produced grease, there's going to be a huge flareup and could make it worse."
The best way to put out a fire though is to have a fire extinguisher on hand.
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