George Foreman has to be smiling somewhere. The king of the electric grill soon might do more business in Lawrence.

That’s because Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical leaders are proposing a new fire code that would ban charcoal and gas grills from the wooden decks of apartment complexes containing three or more units. Grills also would be banned from ground-floor patios of apartments if there is a wooden deck directly above the patio.

Fire Marshal Rich Barr said the proposed regulations were simply about safety.

“If you have a fire at an apartment complex, it could endanger a large number of folks, not just you and your family,” Barr said.

“And we get a large number of calls from apartment complex owners. They’re the ones seeing it every day, and they tell us they would like it to be illegal. That tells me something.”

City commissioners are expected to discuss the issue at their 6:35 p.m. meeting today at City Hall, but are not expected to take a vote on the code.

Reaction to the idea was mixed Monday on the Kansas University campus.

“Oh wow, that would definitely put a cramp in my summer routine,” said Thomas Horst, a KU junior. “That would change things for a whole lot of people. But I suppose from a safety standpoint, I can see it.”

Many apartment complexes already have rules that prohibit the grills, but Barr said the law would give landlords the ability to call the city to write a ticket, which could carry a $100 to $200 fine.

Barr anticipates his department would enforce the ordinance on a complaint basis, rather than patrolling for offenders. “We don’t want to become the barbecue police by any means,” he said.

Grill usage would not be banned on decks of single-family homes or duplexes.

Apartment complexes that have a fire sprinkler system also could be exempt.

The new fire code, as previously reported, would require all new apartment complexes to have fire sprinkler systems. It would not require existing apartment complexes to be retrofitted with sprinklers, Barr said.