Grease Fire Starts at Former Prause Market

La Grange Volunteer Fire Department put out a big grease fire that started in the barbecue pit at the old Prause’s Meat Market building on the Courthouse Square Wednesday morning.

According to Fire Chief Frank Menefee, the new building owners plan to install a new ventilation system for the barbecue pit. He said they set a fire inside the barbecue pits Wednesday morning in order to gauge how much smoke the pit produced so they could purchase an appropriate ventilation system.

“Most of the time you barbecue around 200 to 300 degrees,” Menefee said. “Well, they had way too much wood in the pit.”

Menefee said the pit was “stacked with wood.” The fire started melting the decadesworth of delicious Prause’s barbecue grease, which intensified the fire.

Firefighters got the call around 11 a.m. A large crowd of onlookers gathered as the building’s old smokestack bellowed a cloud of black and grey fumes.

The new owners had left the building by the time the grease caught fire, Menefee said. Firefighters were able to quickly put out the fire once they got inside. Menefee said his department then used a thermal imaging device to make sure there were no fires burning within wall cavities or the attic.

The building suffered some smoke damage, but Menefee said the structure was not harmed by the fire.