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.