Nonsense. She pored the gas from the can onto the grill that had hot coals already.
My old man used to light the Weber grill using gas.
“Now you NEVER add gas to hot coals or a fire! So make sure you use plenty at the very beginning.”
Then he’d stand back a few feet and use a wooden match to toss into the grill. Then WOOSH! (When I would light it I ended up standing farther back and going through several matches.) I think the concave shape of the bottom of the grill gave it a more impressive mushroom cloud as it ignited.
My buddies gave me a hard time about the gasoline flavored burgers, but I never tasted it. Pretty sure that was all burned off by the time you started grilling.