Nahh, this is not connected to the hood. Its a separate duct going from the kitchen ceiling out to the side of the house, like you see. It might have some grease in it but I doubt it has too much since the OG owner of the house was not a cook type, AND its not over the stove.
10-4. Are you sure the Hood's not connected to it? Where does the hood exhaust at then?
Well okay that's not something I thought of, but you're right it was played pretty loose back in the day. Is there a greasy film on everything up there?
That's a good point. Very possible, that or just old wiring, but if you're exhausting Grease particulates on top of insulation and combustible materials, well that's probably not going to do you any favors in the long run. Also think about how much crap people store in their attics, cardboard boxes junk whatever. Just go ahead and turn it all into a candle by frying up pork chops / bacon once a week. Give it a decade or two dependent upon what you cook, and yeah it's makes sense.
Yeah, you got to be careful. I've started a fires on my gas grills in the past if I use them to cook something that renders a bunch of fat and didn't put down a drip pan. Only had to do that once. But even the ambient Greece you get from cooking regularly on it is enough to ignite if the temperature is hot enough.
Guess it depends on how much fat you'll render. Watched it a few times, and it doesn't drain out, but the chimney has a lip around it keeping the drippings separate. Too much grease, overflow on the chimney, and then you have a lot of smoke. It's got to be a pain to clean, too.
yea i probably should get an extinquisher for my patio..., even tho my kitchen and garage are right there, who knows.
i've seen a lot of this type of barrel cooking when asians want crispy skin, i've seen em line chicken and ducks and pork belly facing the fire, the drippings is collected on the out ring and used to make sauce
Lanx
as the unofficial amazon ambassador. Faggot delivery I mentioned damaged in shipping? Wont let me do anything until 5 days past delivery. Exceeded that and now in a endless loop of no matter what I press it saying basically wait for us to receive the item back, an auto chat bot that just wants me to look at my order page, etc etc, If I try to manually request a refund, gives me all shit options, and the one for item/box damaged etc wants me to answer if it's still in the box which I'm sure setting it up to be flagged as my problem to return when it never even made it to my state. 
