Well I do not want to hijack your thread but I have a story that very much relates to fire and ECB's. These things do work great but you need to be careful.
Back in February I tried smoking my first butts on the ECB to make pulled pork nachos for the Super Bowl. I put the butts on with a full
charcoal chimney around 1:00 am Saturday night before the game, installed the Maverick in the butts and one for smoker temp and went to bed. Woke up periodically throughout the night to check the temps and everything was going great.
Awoke at 7:00 am and the two butts where at about 165. Thought ok now it's time to foil and reload with fresh charcoal and let them finish. I put a chimney of charcoal in the pan, foiled the butts, everything was going great, should be ready for kick off. This is where it all went bad!
I started to notice the temp on the Maverick climbing at an alarming rate, just skyrocketing! I though oh sh#t what is going on! I went back outside to hear the sound of crackling fire. I took the lid of the ECB to take a look and then it started. The entire smoker instantly became engulfed in flames and the lid was so hot I dropped it on the patio. This of course left the ECB open like a chimney and it just fueled the fire.
This thing got so big and so hot that it reminded me of a vehicle fire ( I am not even kidding). I am about 6' and the flames where well over my head and it was to hot I couldn't even get close. The paint started melting off the outside and I could see the two butts in there on the racks and the racks were starting to droop and sag from the heat. I stood and watched in horror as my smoker and my first butts went up in flames! My wife opened up the door and about had a heart attack!
I tried to hook up the garden hose to at least cool the thing off but it was winter here in southern Oregon and it was all of about 20 degrees and the damn water hose was frozen!! So to my horror I just sat there and watched the thing burn on my patio until it finally burned itself out.
After all that I took the butts off ( they looked like large chunks of charcoal) and took a peak inside and the meat inside was still fine! I thought well I might as well put them in the oven and finish them off and see what happens. Cooked until 205, coolered them for a while and started pulling. It was crazy, the charcoal on the outside acted like an eggshell and just cracked off leaving wonderfully smoked pulled pork!
The reason for the fire you might ask? no it wasn't grease buildup or anything else that's been discussed, it was the fact that the water had dried up in the pan overnight and filled full of wonderfully flammable pork grease and as soon as I put the new hot coals under it it instantly caught fire!
The crazy thing was is that I always used the ECB under our covered patio but for some reason that night I thought, you know since I will be sleeping for most of this smoke I am going to put this thing in the middle of the patio away from everything in case something happens! Good thing because this very easily would have caught the house on fire.
So the lesson learned here was alway keep the smoker away from the house, and always empty the grease from the water pan! I have since bought another ECB and have had no problems. Most things I smoke (ribs, tri tip and jerky) don't produce nearly the amount of drippings that the butts did but the next time I do butts I will certainly be more careful!!!
Sorry for the long winded story but I thought you might find this interesting.
Oregonsmoker
