Jerry Ito saw the Slice column reference to backyard cookouts that create so much smoke neighbors wonder if your house is on fire.

"I've got one better," wrote Ito, a Davis, Calif., resident in Spokane visiting family. "Our charcoal grill put out so much smoke one time that a firefighter from the nearby fire station came by to check on us."

I assume they offered him or her something to eat.

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