In a recent interview with NFPA Journal, ESPN Anchor Hannah Storm shares her story of how she received first- and second-degree burns from a gas grill explosion. The incident occurred December 2012, at her home when she went outside to turn on the grill. According to Storm, she noticed the flames had been blown out by the wind, so she turned off the gas, then turned it back on and hit the igniter. At that moment, the grill blew up. "It was an explosion, a fireball, just like you see in the movies," she recalls. Storm suffered first-degree burns to her face and neck, and second-degree burns to her chest and hands.
Storm urges everyone to read the instructions to their gas grills before operating. "I didn't read my grill safety instructions," she says. "I didn't know. . . . I assumed that the propane has dissipated into the air immediately." After the incident, she notes her grill instructions say to wait at least 15 minutes to turn the gas back on. "First thing—I should have sat down and read how do you operate this. Busy life, don't bother doing it. Look what happened," she says.
Along with NFPA, Storm is spreading the message of grill safety. Visit NFPA's site to view a video of Storm's interview and to learn more about grill safety.
A Blog From the American Society of Safety Engineers