It looks to be a nice Independence Day weekend and many will likely spend time cooking out over the next few days.

There are a few simple things we can all do to make sure the holiday isn’t an explosive one for the wrong reasons.

Perry Volunteer Fire Department Chief Chris Hinds says the first step is checking things over before you start a gas grill.

“Be very careful and check the tubes and everything that lead to the burners because over the winter or even in the spring and summer time if it goes a week or two between grillings, spiders, bugs and things like that can crawl up in there and plug these tubes.  Then you can get grease build up and things like that from cooking.  All of those things create fire hazards and effect the output and the way the grill performs.”

Hinds says it also matters where you’re cooking.

“Make sure you’re not grilling next to your storage cabinet where you have your gasoline for your lawn mower or anything like that.  I know people like to try and get in the shade to grill, or on a rainy day move to where they’re not too wet.  You should always operate your grill at least 10 feet away from your house or other buildings and never use your grill in your garage or breezeway or carport, anything like that.”

Hinds says cooking in a non-open space not only creates fire hazards but can also result in carbon monoxide poisoning.