BUTT FIRE..YIKES!!

Rudyfo · April 04, 2011, 08:11:18 AM

I did 15 pounds of BUTT over the weekend. One was an 8 pounder and the other a 7 pounder. I took them both to 190 degrees IT. The total time was 20 hours for the smaller one and 21.5 for the bigger one. I thought I did everything by textbook. I smoked them for 5 hours and then changed the water for new hot water and never opened the door again. I had my cabinet set at 230 degrees. Well approximately on hour 19 my wife looked out the window only to see abnormal smoke rolling out of the smoker. When I opened the door I had a fire on my drip try and on the larger BUTT itself. I calmly got the fire out that was on the meat/rack and then removed the drip try and put that fire out. I then put everything back in and proceeded to have 2 wonderful BUTTS! The good news is nothing was damaged not even the meat. I just hate to think what could have happened had my wife not seen the smoke or if we would have not been around for a little while. So lesson learned, fires can happen!

DTAggie · April 04, 2011, 08:27:02 AM

Glad you were able to save the day Rudy. How do you have your drip tray installed? Post a pic so we can make sure you have it in there correctly.

muebe · April 04, 2011, 08:42:59 AM

Whoa :o That was way too close. Glad things turned out ok :)

Rudyfo · April 04, 2011, 09:05:48 AM

I'll post a picture sometime in the near future. My center hole was open, it did have some buildup but not a lot. It looked as though some grease dripped near the top of the drip tray down onto the heating element. The part that caught fire was the top part of the drip tray, near the back wall, directly above the heating element.

Rudyfo · April 04, 2011, 09:12:18 AM

Also, I had one BUTT, the largest, on the bottom rack just above the drip tray and I had the smaller BUTT on the third rack. Not sure if that would make a difference.

squirtthecat · April 04, 2011, 09:13:58 AM

Sounds like some grease had splattered, run down the back wall and ignited.

Close call - glad you caught it and save the day! (and your smoker and your dinner)

OldHickory · April 04, 2011, 09:58:11 AM

Close call, but you handled it well. I use a double sheet of aluminum foil over the back 1/3 of the drip tray to reflect the heat more central. This also appears to seal the drip tray with the wall of the cabnet and may protect drips of grease from reaching the heating element. No guaranties that this
would work for you, but it does seem to help in my smoker.

iceman · April 04, 2011, 10:39:14 AM

Glad to hear the boss caught it in time ;) :D. Whew!!!

watchdog56 · April 04, 2011, 10:52:30 AM

Glad to hear everything is ok. I had a fire in my smoker and it destroyed it so now waiting for Cabela's to send out the coupon where if you spend so much you get so much off. I am going through smoker withdrawal big time.
Mine happened doing a couple of butts also and the next time I will definitely be scraping any excess fat off the drip pan.

ArnieM · April 04, 2011, 11:02:27 AM

Happy to hear it worked out, dinner and all. I normally keep an eye on my OBS; no overnight smokes.

I use the foil trick that OldHickory mentioned for the same reasons. It seems to work.

MidKnightRider · April 04, 2011, 01:51:51 PM

Quote from: OldHickory on April 04, 2011, 09:58:11 AM
Close call, but you handled it well. I use a double sheet of aluminum foil over the back 1/3 of the drip tray to reflect the heat more central. This also appears to seal the drip tray with the wall of the cabnet and may protect drips of grease from reaching the heating element. No guaranties that this
would work for you, but it does seem to help in my smoker.

can you post a picture of how you do the foil?

GusRobin · April 04, 2011, 02:18:22 PM

Just my opinion but I wouldn't put foil on the V tray. We have had members have fires due to that.

_Bear_ · April 04, 2011, 04:35:15 PM

Glad it all turned out OK. If I had seen the title of this thread anywhere else but this website, I would hove been thinking something entirely different had happened ;D

steve-o · April 04, 2011, 05:02:10 PM

Youre doing something right if your wife is still checkin out your butt :)

KyNola · April 05, 2011, 07:19:02 AM

Rudy, glad to hear all ultimately turned out OK. If I read your initial post correctly after you refilled your water bowl after the 5 hour smoke period you never checked it again until the fire. That's a total of 16 additional hours. Most likely your water bowl went dry. It is important to never let the bowl go dry as it is there to collect and cool the grease as well as extinguish the pucks. Also sounds like perhaps the butt on the bottom may have been touching the back wall of your smoker and the grease ran down the wall on to the heating element.

BUTT FIRE..YIKES!!

squirtthecat