That gets ones attention rather quickly. (I was at the computer reading the ETS forum at the time.) (Sorry if this is long. Most certainly a few good lessons here.)

Along with a fresh turkey, we bought a goose for the Thanksgiving feast. It was not a wild goose and it was VERY fatty. Before cooking it I pulled out two fist sized globs of fat. There was still a lot more throughout the bird.

We placed it on a cookie sheet to catch the drippings. Hah! ¾” sides was not enough to hold all of the drippings.

We were using my neighbor’s grill because my grill is not operating right now. #1 son (24, smart, Eagle Scout) was in charge of cooking the goose. The grille is next to the front door. #1 put the goose in the warmed up grille and came back to our house for a few minutes. He set the alarm on his Driod to 15 minutes so he would not forget.

Good thing because when he went back there was flaming drips of fat falling onto the propane tank and splashing onto the ground. The leaves on the ground around the grille were burning.

When #1 asked for a fire extinguisher my wife very forcefully alerted the entire household as she was trained to do as a nurse. I ran from my computer without taking off my computer glasses and putting on my normal glasses. I ran to the garage where there “had” been a large dry chemical extinguisher for the past 20 years. Hmmm, not there. A minute later my wife ran to garage for that extinguisher because it has ALWAYS been there.

Since the neighbor is only 30’ away I ran there to asses the situation. Not a large fire but the burning fat dripping on the propane tank was frightening. Why was it not dripping into the cup under the grille as it is supposed to do? Decision time: do we all run away, call the fire department, probably have a tank explode before the fire truck gets there? Or do we put out the fire? Right or wrong, we fought the fire.

For starters I pulled the grille (on a wheeled stand) away from the house. My sister grabbed the small fire extinguisher from the hall next to the bedrooms. I had insisted on hanging the extinguisher out in the open where anyone could see it. That was a good decision since my visiting sister remembered seeing it there.

That small extinguisher put out most of the fire but inside the grille it was still burning. And dripping flaming fat onto the propane tank. The neighbor came out with another small dry chemical extinguisher, pulled the pin and started waving it frantically around, but not on the fire. (She is a very smart person, but the excitement impaired her thinking.) Before I could stop her, the extinguisher was half empty.

The neighbor’s garden hose is on the end of the house, 15’ away so I grabbed it and turned it on. Normally it is not recommended to use water on a liquid fire but in this case I needed to keep the propane tank cool, the volumetric flow of fat was very low and the grille was now sitting on an area that any flow could be diverted away from the grille and house.

The water was keeping the tank cool but the flaming fat kept dripping. I noticed that the burners were still lit! I turned off the two burners but the fat fire would continue for a long time. I needed to turn off the propane tank valve NOW because if the rubber hose burned through there would be a flamethrower from the end of a flexible hose whipping around. That was a scary thought. I reached in and turned the valve off knowing that the hot fat was still dripping. I got the valve turned off but three drips hit my hand so I now have three small 2nd degree burns. Not serious but not preferred.

We were able to lift the goose out and let the fire inside the grille burn out while hosing off the tank.

My analysis:

1. Don’t get any more fatty geese.
2. Use a deeper pan to catch ALL the dripping fat.
3. Remove all combustible materials around the grille. (self administered dope slap)
4. Fire extinguishers need to be out in the open where they can be seen easily. They should be attached to the wall so they are ALWAYS there. I searched the house top to bottom and cannot find that large extinguisher! I have no idea where it could be.
5. Multiple extinguishers is a must.
6. Keeping your head and thinking clearly is far better than panicking. Sounds like bragging I guess, but I believe that #1 Son, wife, sister and myself continued to think clearly while the neighbor panicked.
7. It is amazing how quickly your environment can go from quiet, calm, looking forward to visiting with the family and friends to fighting for your property and life. A reminder that I need to ALWAYS be prepared…

Sorry for the long post but I am hoping others can learn from my errors.

I was certainly not properly prepared so any tongue lashings are not undeserved.

Oh, the goose was black all over but most of the meat was very tasty. Probably all the fat…

Craig T.

Wow. Glad you're ok.

My wife wouldn't do so well in a situation like that.

It sounds to me like you did a great job other than knowing what happened to your large fire extinguisher. In particular it sounds like you were thinking pretty clearly when you used the hose to cool the grill down and got the burners turned off.

I personally prefer to have several small ones around.

Thanks for sharing that harrowing experience - vivid testament that we are all just a mishap away from a very bad day.

Sounds like you had a pretty effective team effort.

Heck of a way to add a last-second item to the "things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving" list.

I hope the rest of the holiday weekend is less dramatic.

I'm glad it ended up well and safe for all of you. No matter what you did, you had options, and that's a good thing! Good job!

One other takeway might be to assess the placement of your grill relative to structures - alot of fires I go to result from flames shooting up from grills and turkey fryers that catch the overhanging eaves. Always grill well away from structures, it saves alot of sorrow.

No turkey fryer episodes this year, but one fairly nasty apartment fire that destroyed 6 units and affected 9 others, cause still unknown.

And our fire extinguisher extravaganza at the family dinner went really well this year, all 3 of my sisters who had never shot off an extinguisher really enjoyed putting down test fires with our older expired extinguishers. And we used it as a learning opportunity for the younger cousins - by the second fire, a small flock of 9 years old and younger were shouting "FIRE FIRE" and headed OUTSIDE the 'building', all in a clump. I don't know about you, but I don't want my nieces and nephews standing around watching mommy and daddy trying to put out a range fire. We want them OUT.

Thanks, excellent post. Sometimes length is warranted. Good lessons learned.

Time for me to hit "the local warehouse Home hardware store" for a new fire extinguisher.

i wonder how many times a story like this could be told post Thanksgiving.good thinking and some brave moves saved the day.
my fire story is low key.i was out cooking cornbread over a camp stove and to keep warm lit a fire of old semi rotten 2x4s in one of those big fire grill things.one bit of wood hung over the spark screen.nice warm blaze,i went into the house to check on how the dinner was going and refilled the wine glass,looking out the window i saw the over hanging 2X4 burned thru and was on the ground burning leaves heaped around the garden.not a big deal but the 60 foot pine close by with branches low to the ground called for a fast exit,wine in hand,and some quick work with a rake.the water was turned off a week ago and the hose put away.
lets see if i can get the Xmas lights up today without turning it into a survival situation.....anyone else???

Funny. I just read on another forum a guy lit his duck on fire because he underestimated its fat content compare with turkey.

Seems they require careful cooking than turkey.

I love a happy ending!

Seriously, good story, and a good reminder to the rest of us. Tune in next time for the explanation of where the big extinguisher went!

LOL! My thoughts exactly, ut with mush better wording.