Almost Burned Smokehouse Down (Need Advice)

[SmilinNSmokin]

I’ve done 4 smokes in the smokehouse with temperatures from 225° up to 415° in a double walled cedar smokehouse with an offset brick fire box 2 feet away. Last night I ran into an issue inside the smokehouse and I need to make some modifications and get advice.

I was smoking chicken, wings, and Texas Twinkies. One of the recipes said for the last 30 minutes to kick the temperature up to 400° and that was problematic as I almost set the smokehouse on fire.

1). In the future, should I just only smoke things that do not exceed 300° in the smokehouse? I am having no difficulty at all getting temperatures to 400° if I need to, though I’ve learned to manage the fire down at 225°

2). The pipe is 6 inches in diameter, and I do not have a screen over the intake to the smoke House, as I wasn’t sure if I was going to gum it up with creosote, and occasionally embers go through it. But most of my smokes have been very clean, smoking with no white smoke whatsoever coming out of the smokehouse. Would you recommend me putting a screen on both the exit from the firebox as well as the intake into the smoke House?

2). I lined all the walls and ceiling with very fine aluminum flashing sheets, thinking that would be a barrier between the heat and the wood to keep it from catching fire. Not sure if aluminum flashing really is that fireproof?

3). My grilling racks are half inch expanded steel and they get nice and hot, which is what I desire. However, the support racks on each side of the smokehouse, and there are 4 sets, are 1” x 2” strips of red fir screwed into the aluminum flashing and into the wood on the other side.

I am wondering if I need to have something other than wood to support the grill racks. I also wonder if the screws that go into the supports would get hot enough to transfer heat through the wall and still catch the wood on the other side on fire?

4). Should I line it with some sort of fireproof board, foam, 1000 degree Celsius fiberglass insulation? Rockwool, etc.?

So I’m looking to do some design modification before I smoke anything again, I don’t want to make sure that I totally fireproof the inside. Any at all suggestions are needed…

 

[chef k-dude]

The pictures dont really show enough to know what almost burned down means, to me. By that description I would expect to see serious char on the outside of that enclosure.

I've heard/read of a few people making pine and cedar smoke boxes but I dont know that much about it. My assumption was they were cold smoking stuff like salmon, not pumping in hundreds of degrees of heat.

The internet tells you that wood generally will spontaneously combust at 550° to 600° (by the way, I am impressed by your use of the degree symbol. It doesn't exist on most keyboards, I have to hit alt+0716 in another place than here to get the symbol then copy and paste it). But there are a lot of variables, such as moisture content, stage of decay, etc..

Long term exposure to high heat apparently degrades wood and makes it's flash point lower. It's possible that the first smokes you did made the wood more vulnerable to ignition. Just a theory, I have no experience in wooden smokers and I would never build one out of wood for hot smoking, regardless of what other people are doing.

Cedar is a highly flammable wood with resins in it. Survivalists know if you dont have any kindling, live cedar will ignite with flame for starting a fire. If you have ever lit a dry Christmas tree, you know dry pine can be very flammable. The last time I lit one to burn it away for disposal I was shocked...it was like it had gasoline poured on it. We went to artificial trees starting the next year! I will never bring one of those ticking bombs in to my house again.

You may already, but I recommend keeping fire extinguishers in strategic locations, and making sure to keep them current on the expiration date. I keep one centrally located upstairs, downstairs and by the door leading out to my garage. I also have emergency fire ladders near windows on each end of the house upstairs. I've seen the burnt houses and heard the stories...stuff can happen very quickly.

Here is an article on wood combustion.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Wood starts to smolder at about 400*F so there is that.
I would never take my smokehouse past 250F it is designed to smoke meats, sounds like you need a bbq pit.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Keyword here.
"Smokehouse"
Not a bbq house.

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

Wood starts to smolder at about 400*F so there is that.
I would never take my smokehouse past 250F it is designed to smoke meats, sounds like you need a bbq pit.

I was thinking that was the case as I started watching too many YouTube videos and started going beyond just smoking. I just needed to hear it from somebody with experience so thank you!

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

Keyword here.
"Smokehouse"
Not a bbq house.

Thank you! I needed to hear that. I got carried away and started thinking I could cook stuff in it. Really appreciate your input

 

[SmokinEdge]

You have a beautiful little smokehouse, but in all honesty use it to smoke bacon, sausage and ham. My smokehouse generally only runs 120-170F right where is was made to be, but I have done brisket and butts in there running 225-250F and it works fine. Maybe you just got carried away, I understand that.

 

[normanaj]

Thank you! I needed to hear that. I got carried away and started thinking I could cook stuff in it. Really appreciate your input

And like SmokinEdge said don't take it past 250℉!

 

[BigW.]

When you need to kick it up a notch towards the end...do that on a gas grill, oven etc. Use that nice smokehouse on the lower end of temps.

 

[Murray]

Monitor smoke house temperatures with a remote thermometer, set an alarm for whatever temperature you feel is reasonable. Obviously it won’t prevent a fire but will give you notice that you have issues

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

When you need to kick it up a notch towards the end...do that on a gas grill, oven etc. Use that nice smokehouse on the lower end of temps.

Monitor smoke house temperatures with a remote thermometer, set an alarm for whatever temperature you feel is reasonable. Obviously it won’t prevent a fire but will give you notice that you have issues

I have been using the ThermoWorks signals. Even bought the billows for it, but have not attached it yet. I guess in all honesty, I got carried away when I saw how hot I could get in there. But I do have it fully set up for Wi-Fi and look at temps from my house. I didn’t think it was any big deal when I was getting up to 300°, but lesson learned and thankfully before I burned anything down. Guess I’ll burn everything down under 250 from now on. Thank you again!

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

When you need to kick it up a notch towards the end...do that on a gas grill, oven etc. Use that nice smokehouse on the lower end of temps.

Thanks, will do!

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

Wood starts to smolder at about 400*F so there is that.
I would never take my smokehouse past 250F it is designed to smoke meats, sounds like you need a bbq pit.

Yep

 

[voyager 663rd]

TL:DR

If you started a fire, just like in a fireplace chimney: too much creosote build up PLUS a hot fire = the creosote catches fire.

I don't think you can safely do a smoke (which by it's very nature is a lot of smoke) and then have a hot fire. Not compatible operations.

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

TL:DR

If you started a fire, just like in a fireplace chimney: too much creosote build up PLUS a hot fire = the creosote catches fire.

I don't think you can safely do a smoke (which by it's very nature is a lot of smoke) and then have a hot fire. Not compatible operations.

 

[SmilinNSmokin]

I learned a valuable lesson last night. I got carried away, thinking I could cook and smoke in my smokehouse, figuring I have both a hot smoke House and a cold smoke House. Back in September, a friend of mine had a used Traeger he offered me and my wife told me absolutely no, that I already have a hot smokehouse and we don’t need to duplicate. I just called him an hour and a half ago and asked if he still had the Traeger and he said he did, so anytime I need to cook something over 200°, I’ll use that device and just purely smoke everything in my smoke houses at lower temperatures.

Thank you again! Between last night’s experience and me posting on here, you’ve all provided valuable insight that further prevented me from creating a catastrophic event…

 

[SmokinEdge]

I learned a valuable lesson last night. I got carried away, thinking I could cook and smoke in my smokehouse, figuring I have both a hot smoke House and a cold smoke House. Back in September, a friend of mine had a used Traeger he offered me and my wife told me absolutely no, that I already have a hot smokehouse and we don’t need to duplicate. I just called him an hour and a half ago and asked if he still had the Traeger and he said he did, so anytime I need to cook something over 200°, I’ll use that device and just purely smoke everything in my smoke houses at lower temperatures.

Thank you again! Between last night’s experience and me posting on here, you’ve all provided valuable insight that further prevented me from creating a catastrophic event…

You are now on the right path.

 

[hoity toit]

I’ve done 4 smokes in the smokehouse with temperatures from 225° up to 415° in a double walled cedar smokehouse with an offset brick fire box 2 feet away. Last night I ran into an issue inside the smokehouse and I need to make some modifications and get advice.

I was smoking chicken, wings, and Texas Twinkies. One of the recipes said for the last 30 minutes to kick the temperature up to 400° and that was problematic as I almost set the smokehouse on fire.

1). In the future, should I just only smoke things that do not exceed 300° in the smokehouse? I am having no difficulty at all getting temperatures to 400° if I need to, though I’ve learned to manage the fire down at 225°

2). The pipe is 6 inches in diameter, and I do not have a screen over the intake to the smoke House, as I wasn’t sure if I was going to gum it up with creosote, and occasionally embers go through it. But most of my smokes have been very clean, smoking with no white smoke whatsoever coming out of the smokehouse. Would you recommend me putting a screen on both the exit from the firebox as well as the intake into the smoke House?

2). I lined all the walls and ceiling with very fine aluminum flashing sheets, thinking that would be a barrier between the heat and the wood to keep it from catching fire. Not sure if aluminum flashing really is that fireproof?

3). My grilling racks are half inch expanded steel and they get nice and hot, which is what I desire. However, the support racks on each side of the smokehouse, and there are 4 sets, are 1” x 2” strips of red fir screwed into the aluminum flashing and into the wood on the other side.

I am wondering if I need to have something other than wood to support the grill racks. I also wonder if the screws that go into the supports would get hot enough to transfer heat through the wall and still catch the wood on the other side on fire?

4). Should I line it with some sort of fireproof board, foam, 1000 degree Celsius fiberglass insulation? Rockwool, etc.?

So I’m looking to do some design modification before I smoke anything again, I don’t want to make sure that I totally fireproof the inside. Any at all suggestions are needed…

It is a smokehouse ---- NOT a BBQ pit. Looks like a nice set up, do your cooking on something else. And do your smoking in the smokehouse. Just my opinion.

HT