As long as you have a drip pan over your flame (I have a chip box as well as a water pan covering the flame) there should be no problems. Most of these fires start b/c grease drips down onto the flame. The only thing you have to watch is that the chips do not catch fire. As long as you soak the chips and keep on eye on it, you should be fine. I have used it many times with no problems. That being said, this is not the kind of smoker you can throw something in and come back in 10 hours. You need to keep an eye on it. A portable temperature probe is all you need. A sudden, drastic spike in temp means your chips are on fire. Really not much of a problem though.