For those of you who smoke your own meats and cheeses with the Little Chief, BE CAREFUL! I just got through putting out a big fire mine started. Burnt the crap out of my right ring finger, but no damage to the house. Thank God. I was making some jerky and smoking cheese. Some how the smoker got too hot and melted the cheese which was outside the smoker on top of the lid. The melted cheese caught fire and sent both boxes up too. I happened to look out the door and saw flames heading for the carport. This is the first fire I have had, in over twenty years of smoking, ten of my own, ten of my Dad's. I think I will chuck my boxes and use just the frame. Or maybe build a light metal one to fit over the smoker. Or maybe it is just time to build the big one I have been putting off. Oh, I was using the chips and chunks and small chunks of hickory wood. Just a warning to those all who do use smokers, from one lucky smoker. Guess this puts a new spin on the fish recipes I gave on another topic post. I guess I could call it Cajun smoking.

Also be careful about dumping out the wood chip ashes. There must have been a little cinder left because it caught my dad’s bark on fire one year and was on its way to bigger and better things when I noticed it.

hey thanks big jim, i use a lil chief alot. now i'll have to keep track of it a little more.

Never use the cardboard box unless it's too cold outside. Doesn't effect the taste of the fish anyway. The Duck

I had a Little Chief a few years ago that burnt down half of my deck. A word to the wise... never place your smoker on a wooden surface. I loaded the chip pan and layed down for an hour, when I came back it was flame on.

TL/WN
Camo

Wow, I never thought so many people had fires. I sent an email to Luhr Jensen about it. I will see what they say. Maybe tell them to visit here and see how many others had the same problems.

I have to second Camo's post.

8 years ago My Dad put a beauty of a hole right through his wood deck due to the surface temperature on the bottom of the smoker. Caught the deck on fire and burnt right through the floor boards and the joist. Close call cause the house could have easily caught on.

The solution: Put down a few sqaure brick pavers underneath the smoker to act as a heat barrier.

Same deal here........I used a Little Chief for years on my deck with no problem.......then I graduated to the "Big Chief" with the new instructions to throw out the box (I did)......trouble is, the Big Chief runs hotter and burned a big hole in my deck.....wrecked about 30lbs of prime king (deck paint don't taste good) and just about burned my house down.

I threw the damn thing out

Oh man am I glad you guys said something about not putting them on the deck. Just built a deck last summer.

Ticked me off because I really wanted to have a deck but missed many fishing trips to build her.

My wife helped, she would have been pissed if I burned the deck down.

Plus if I would have burned the deck down I could not still give her a hard time for watering the plant on top of the T.V., which leaked and a $1000 dollar T.V. went up in smoke.

Hey thank you Jim as well as others for saying all this. I was just about to put some trout on the smoker, which I put on my deck. Hoooly cow I think I'll put it out on our cement now. Thank you so much guys, you probably saved me tons of money.

I recently bought a Bradley smoker. Will never use the little chiefs again. Man what a difference. It is expensive but well worth the money.