The Poultry Corner in October

 

  The Poulty Corner

POULTRY PROCESSING SAFETY:  Something to Gobble About!

By Sher Jennings

At one of the last general membership for the Pacific Northwest Poultry Association (PNPA) meetings in 2013, Mike Omeg and I did a presentation on Processing Poultry.   It was a very thorough presentation and included a lot of hand-outs, display items, notes, recipes, advice on processing options, a powerpoint presentation with a lot of pictures, and safety information.

The safety part of it included using knives that are sharp, positioning and stance, handling birds, etc etc. Based on a recent and humbling experience, I’d like to add one more item to that Safety List that hadn’t occurred to me at the time.   Propane equipment.Well “DUH!!!”, you might say. But I’m not talking about the obvious considerations when working with propane. I’ve been raising and processing birds for decades. I’ve taken great pride in how thoroughly I’ve thought through set-up well before I even touch the first bird. In this instance, I had agreed to assist Lisa Plous in processing a couple of turkeys, one of which was the Champion Turkey at the Skamania County Fair weighing in at 42.6 lbs, as well as 4 Jersey Giants cockerels………turkey-ish in their own right.

Normally, I process in the back of my property where I have close access to my kitchen, plenty of water, shade, etc etc. This time, because of the uncanny heat predicted for the day, I set up in the front yard on the lawn, also near water but under the shade of some large trees and next to the driveway, and also my house.

My fairly new, recently filled 5 gallon propane tank, however, refused to work after hooking it up to the burner (one of those turkey fryer stands which works great for heating up water). We determined the problem was the tank and so Lisa brought down her freshly filled 10 gallon propane tank. Max, my company from Arizona, and gourmet cook, was excited about the prospect of getting to learn how to process poultry so had volunteered to do whatever he could to help. Once Lisa arrived, he helped her set up the tank and light the burner, while I busied myself with finishing the table set-up nearby.

As I walked back out to the driveway, I was stopped by the horrified expression on Max’s face as he pointed past me and hollered, “FIRE!”. As I turned around, I could see that the burner was burning. And so was the TOP of the propane tank.-       *****Please keep in mind that this story, from this point, is minus the volume, expletives, memorable one-liners, and a few other actions taken by the parties in attendance, me included. -****

I had just told Max an hour earlier that the two things in the world that truly scare me are electricity and propane. It was all I could do to grab the charged hose and start spraying water. While the burner went out, the propane tank fire dropped down but kept going. The hope was to keep the tank cool and the fire from turning into a full blow torch.Lisa grabbed a hoist rope, intended for the turkeys, tied it to her bumper and the other end to the burner stand.

Still connected by the propane hose to the burning propane tank, she pulled everything down the gravel driveway until she got to the end. Meanwhile, my daughter called 911 and thanks to tax cuts immediately was connected to a recording which told her to say “9-1-1” if it truly was an emergency. Then it connected to a dispatcher who’s job apparently was to determine what kind of emergency it was and then re-route to (in our case) the fire department. By that point, Lisa had disconnected the drag rope from the back of her truck and sped up the street.

By the time the fire department arrived, the flames coming out of the propane tank were shooting up to 20 feet out of the top of the tank across my driveway. Had that tank been anywhere else, it would have ignited our countryside neighborhood with forested land homes, starting with my own house. Even the firefighters were surprised that two hours later, the fire was still coming out of that propane tank like a blow torch, although down to about 5 feet in length. Thirty minutes later, they were hosing the tank down in hopes of knocking down the last of the flames.

Turns out, my newer tank hadn’t worked originally because of a safety valve that the newest tanks have. The older tank, minus the safety valve sensor, had released gas into a propane line that apparently had a crack in it. While the firefighters couldn’t decide if Lisa and I were really stupid or really brave, they were adamant that our actions, while dangerous, had saved houses and forested land. Here are the parting thoughts that could have avoided our day of drama:

1. Keep a welding glove (elbow length) and fire extinguisher nearby when using any outdoor propane appliances. This way, we could have sprayed down the propane flame and quickly turned off the valve (if not damaged).

2. Keep a foam spraying fire extinguisher (standard for most home extinguishers) nearby.

3. Keep a charged hose nearby as well (which helped to keep the propane tank cool and the grass from igniting.

4. Only use propane appliances in a location that have no flammable materials nearby (DUH), preferably on a driveway, and where emergency responders can easily reach, not in your back yard where you may feel better because the neighbors won’t have to witness your processing, but otherwise a very bad idea.

5. And MOST IMPORTANTLY - replace your propane hose every two years, and do not store them outside during the winter. Because we use our propane appliances year-round, I’ll be replacing the hose annually. They’re only about $5.

6. Check the etched numbers on your propane tank. You can tell the month and year that your propane tank was manufactured. The newer ones have the safety valve. Had I known even THAT much, I’d have shut us down when the first newer tank wouldn’t work to begin with. Turns out the alternative tank we ended up using, which had been thought to be relatively new was 24 years old. Propane stations are not allowed to refill older tanks, however, there are still little country stores out there that don’t know or don’t care and don’t even check.

On a final note, picture a massive turkey in an extra-large dog crate sitting in the truck bed of Lisa’s big red truck, next to a huge running fire truck blocking traffic from using the roadway with firefighters in full dress standing nearby. If you know anything about turkeys, you can imagine the non-stop gobbling he was shelling out. Traffic stopped, neighbors coming out, joggers and walkers piling up, horses running back and forth across the pasture…………..that turkey didn’t shut up for almost 2 ½ hours.