Hi All,

Well, this is totally off topic, but because you, my empeg family, have been SO helpful on so many topics that aren't relating to empeg, I wanted to get some help.

So I'm the HOA President of a 24 unit building in SF. We have a bunch of units that have private decks and a common deck on the roof. Most of the people that have private decks were told that grills were ok on their decks. A lot of people in the building also want to have a common grill on the roof.

The problem is that a few of the members on the HOA board do not want to have grills in the building. The biggest opponent to this is a lawyer that lives right next to the common roof deck, and he doesn't like people to use the roof deck because the noise can be heard in his place. Regardless of if that's right or wrong, he's now trying to ban grills in the building altogether.

This has turned into a religious war in the building. I am one of the private deck owners, and I want to have a little grill out there.

So the anti-grill folks are doing everything possible to prove their case against the safety of propane tanks. We have hired a lawyer to give his assessment of what the CC&Rs say... (they don't exclude grills, but do exclude flamable tanks - but that could be so that people don't weld (this is a live/work loft building)). We have contacted the fire department to get an opinion. I called all of the propane safety boards I could find in DC and around the US to gather info.

Our goal is to gather as much factual data as we can find, present to the whole building, and then let them vote.

Any other ideas for data gathering on this issue? In my opinion, propane tanks aren't exploding all over the world, and if people are grilling safely, leave em alone!

Ok, the smoke can be a nuisance, but that's not the issue (at this point).

- Jon