I think he was referring to his charcoal chimney but I haven't ever seen charcoal flare up like that either unless there was grease dripping on it. I personally like my FB door on the end but I don't think there's anything wrong with having it on top.
Just had dumped the charcoal on the bottom of the grill, closed the lid on the kettle since the wind was whipping. When I'd re-opened the lid a minute later, Whoosh. The flame hit about 12" high and possibly the heat is what caused the singe...
Even my eyebrows got trimmed nicely. Yup, I heard that sizzzz. Then just patted my head and face. Close call and I think I'm liking my side loader.
Make no mistake, there ain't no powder in this Puff ! And... I'm not really a crazy person but I play one in real life
I think that's what firemen call a "Backdraft" It's a fire that has built up gobs and gobs of potential energy but the supply of oxygen isn't big enough to support it. Sort of like sayin' "All dressed up but nowhere to go"
Working on a fire that been contained inside a structure for a while firemen are very careful when they first knock down a door (or you open the FB door) all that oxygen rushes in and "Instant inferno".
Maybe try just building a smaller fire and keeping the draft/stack a little more open so the fire's energy is used as it's created instead of stockpiled. If that makes sense……
And on the eighth day God created barbecue …. because he DOES love us and he wants us to be happy.
Current smokers: Egor (trailered RF) and Easybake (tabletop pellet drive)
Ha...no lighter fluid and it was my wife and I with two hamburgers....if there was 20 kingsford type briquettes ....that was about all and I had spread them out into a patch of about 8x10"....
I think Gizmos explanation was correct. It was windy and the gust came at me in the wrong direction. Surprised? Oh yeah!
My thoughts on this quickly went to the firebox on my 275. That would be maybe 7-8 times the size of those 20 briquettes and a bit taller than one level of them . While testing my temps, I'd open and close the FB door to check out flame activity versus output of heat an CC temps...a bunch o' times. Some times the flames were moving along big time but because it has a side door, the risk of exposure is low. The top loader seems like it would pose a greater problem so along those thoughts, I'm stickin' with the side door...!
Make no mistake, there ain't no powder in this Puff ! And... I'm not really a crazy person but I play one in real life