PASCO, Wash. –
If you’re planning to go out and enjoy the nice weather over the weekend and maybe do some barbecuing, you may want to know some safety tips before you light up the grill.
“You want to make sure your barbecue’s clean ready to go. If you’ve got that leftover steak you forgot about last year on it, get that cleaned up before you start that barbecue up. Might be a bird’s nest a squirrels nest you never know what’s in there right,” said Ben Shearer with the Pasco fire department.
Once you get the grill out it’s important to keep it away from things you care about. For example, your house, kids pets or even other fuel sources like extra propane according to Shearer.
He said to also keep it out from under anything other than the sky and to make sure the lid is open when you’re starting up to avoid the fire taking in oxygen quickly and potentially burning yourself.
He also recommended putting lighter fluid away once the fire has started. He said EMS takes people to the hospital every year after they put a little more lighter fluid on their charcoal grill fire after it’s already gotten going.
“Anytime you have any kind of fire you should never leave it unattended so get your barbecue going, make sure your meat is out there ready to go slap it on the grill stay with it and have a good barbecue dinner,” he said.