Barbeque Safety

It’s important always to consider barbeque safety when preparing for a cookout either for the event itself or indeed when buying barbecue equipment. Let’s not go overboard and put warning signs everywhere and make your guests wear Nomex overalls but a few thoughts below may help you on your way.

The most common cause of barbecue accidents is as a result of trying to light a charcoal BBQ – if it doesn’t go first time, many people get frustrated and it’s at this point that you drop your guard. Many a time I’ve seen people bending over a barbeque and blowing at the charcoal and my only response to this is you’ve only got two eyes!

Don’t get yourself into this situation, avoid the frustration and avoid any potential action with two easy steps:-

1. Use an electric charcoal lighter - It works first time and every time.
2. Don’t use old charcoal – charcoal naturally absorbs water so when starting the new barbeque season, don’t be tempted to use last year’s charcoal it simply won’t burn as well or get up to the high temperatures.

The other big worry is to make sure that your family and guests are protected. Having seen a small child burned by a barbecue I decided that it wasn’t going to happen to my kids so I bought a Big Green Egg. You can cook at really high temperatures, the lid gets pleasantly warm but the base remains stone cold and not only this, it’s a great piece of barbecue equipment for either grilling or smoking.

The Big Green Egg suits me because I still want to use charcoal, of course you can achieve similar heat protection with a good sized gas barbecue grill.

The last point from me on barbeque safety is about trip hazards – especially for the night time BBQ cook. When it’s dark we need lighting and some of the top notch grills form Fire Magic have built in halogen lights but we can’t all afford barbecue equipment like this (including me!) so we compromise with a clip on barbecue light.

It’s just a simple tip for buying a light – get one that’s LED and cordless. The batteries seem to last forever and there no chance of anyone tripping up in the dark..

Related Pages:-

Big Green Egg
Barbeque Lights
Barbeque Charcoal
Information About Lighting Your BBQ
General BBQ Safety

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