Please clean your chimneys

[tigger]

Everyone please clean your chimneys on your fire places I have worked 3 house fires the last 20 days started by a chimney fire. Houses totally lost! I worked a fire today from 730 am. till almost 2 pm I was froze it was 8 deg this morning and only got up to 20 deg. Everything froze. Please everyone be careful when using your fireplace!

 

[emmado22]

"Whats that freight train sound?"

 

[FMJ]

"Whats that freight train sound?"

The last time I heard it, it scared the crap out of me. Had to close the flue on the chimney to put it out.

 

[marchplumber]

You go through it once, ya never forget!! It is some incredible heat!!!

God bless,
Tony

 

[USMC4302]

http://www.chimfex.us/about-chimfexr.html -- What about one (or two) of these? Do they work?

 

[emmado22]

No, they don't, not like the website says they do.. Well, perhaps under lab conditions, but all bets are off in real life. We took them off our apparatus (Fire trucks) years ago. The only REAL way to avoid chimney fires is get your chimney cleaned out by a professional..

 

[cpf240]

A wood stove seller / installer suggests keeping sandwich baggies full of the dry chemical powder used in the ABC extinguishers handy in case of chimney fire. Just toss one in, and it *should* put out the fire. Anyone have any experience with this?

What about those powders you add to the normal fire to "convert" the creosote? Do they help prevent the chimney fires?

This is our first winter in a place that uses wood heat, so its all new to us!

 

[emmado22]

The only way to get rid of the creosote is to REMOVE it... Converting it clogs the chimney, and that allows CO and other nasty gases into your home. Call a professional chimney sweeper to have it done correctly. I go to a lot of chimney fires with my fire dept, and the best way to prevent them is to HAVE YOUR CHIMNEY PROFESSIONALLY CLEANED OUT AS NEEDED... Atleast once before the start of the season!

Yes, some places use the ABC dry powder "bombs" but sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, and sometimes you need more than one or two, or four or five.. You will also need a ladder to get to the top of the chimney, some way to remove the flue cap, (whats the pitch of the snow & ice covered roof your standing on while doing this too?), the means to drop the bombs or chains down (and don't look down the pipe, you will only make that mistake once) , and start praying they work, and you really kind of don't know they 100% worked either because you cant look down the pipe without getting all the heat and ash and brands in your face. Even so, the bombs don't remove heat, they HOPEFULLY put the fire out, so you still have the heat in the walls, and hopefully that doesn't cause a fire in the walls, if one isn't going already.. So break out your Thermal Camera and check the walls (putting your hand on the wall isn't a great method.. Whats that, you don't have $5,000+ thermal camera to see the heat? Oh.. Start hoping and praying then.... You might be ok.. Or not...) If you do have fire in the walls, your home is now on fire, and you need professional help.... Do you see where I am going with all this?

If you think you have a chimney fire, CALL YOUR LOCAL FIRE DEPT, they have the right tools and experience to take care of the situation. (Thermal cameras, chimney chains, gas meters etc, etc)

Bottom line, unless you like to gamble with your house burning down or not, CALL THE FIRE DEPT ASAP IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!


Since everyone likes pics, here are some with some great info! http://www.csia.org/homeowner-resources/the_facts_about_chimney_fires.aspx

 

[Bethelfire]

I second this thread! As a Vol firefighter I have responded to many of these fires (had one yesterday and we got lucky it did not spread).

 

[swiss]

I talked to Tigger today after he got back from fighting the fire all morning. I too was under the impression that because I only burn hardwood that is seasoned I was good. After a chilling conversation this afternoon, I checked the fireplace and did some research on the web and I have a creosote buildup and have been naive in my understanding of the problem.

 

[Hoefler]

I had a chimney fire in our first home. Old house with a very tall chimney. I had installed a stainless steel liner pipe. One cold morning I had the wood stove stuffed with dry oak-got here going and began to hear the familiar train coming at you noise. Ran outside to look and found small flames shooting out of top of chimney. Ran inside in a panic, opened the front door of the stove and gave her a shot off the fire extinguisher. Suddenly, the hot stuff inside the stove ended up on the wood floor of my house.
It did end well however. I cracked the door open and feed in some fire ext-then closed the door and shut the dampers to choke it. The fire was out but had all the hot embers from inside the flue fall down to the base of the chimney flue-it stayed cheery red for an hour.
The real fire happened when my wife woke up and saw the scorched floor and white powder all over the living room.
Pete

 

[zout]

Interesting Tigger put this in - Last weekend we had our house attic inside roof spray foamed and what a huge difference already - my neighbor then hired the fellas as he knew how cold this ole 79 house stayed and the furnace and ac always ran.
Long story short - when they completed his house I was watching his chimney from inside my house and the entire metal cap - roughly 30 inches x 48 inches was totally steaming from the rain hitting it - you could see the consistant heat waves moving off it (like watching the desert sand throw off heat) and I called him and told him to look at it. I told him that was not right for that cap to be doing that.

They seldom run their furnace but always burn wood from the one fireplace and have never cleaned it - entire time I have lived here I have been telling him to get someone to brush that baby out and if possible get their camera down in there to inspect the joints.
This week there were no fires in there - and the fella told them the house SHOULD have burnt to the ground and no reason why not - they caught it and are getting the thing repaired.

 

[John S-B]

A wood stove seller / installer suggests keeping sandwich baggies full of the dry chemical powder used in the ABC extinguishers handy in case of chimney fire. Just toss one in, and it *should* put out the fire. Anyone have any experience with this?

What about those powders you add to the normal fire to "convert" the creosote? Do they help prevent the chimney fires?

This is our first winter in a place that uses wood heat, so its all new to us!

That's fine if you can put them in from the TOP. They DON'T work from the bottom because you can't get the powder to effectively disperse. It usually takes several bags, and if not done right can make a real mess in the house. You DO NOT want that powder to get into electronics, it's corrosive.

 

[zout]

Seeing as this was posted by the OP as a protection for members here as a heads up this is something I learned quite a few years back in a fire training session with extremely educated fire fighters.

Most women turn on the dryer at night right !
If the dryer underside has not been kept clean of lint and debris this can and does ignite - when you have gone to bed and sleeping. This is also a major cause of night fires in a household.

Folks think - well I will be able to smell the smoke and wake up - WRONG - the first sense that goes to sleep is your smell capabilities and also one of the last to wake up - so you will not smell the smoke.

ALmost all folks die from smoke inhalation and if you have seen corpses on beds you can flip them off and see their outline on the clean sheets below - they died from smoke and not heat.
If you check out all of your bodily sense's you will see touch - smell - hearing all listed.

Keep your drier underside clean as well.

 

[RodUSMC1962]

I had a stainless chimney pipe put in last year and a
12x24 cleanout door installed 4 ft off the ground. I clean my chimney every month and never have to use a ladder. my chimney mans idea, not mine. Saves me $150 a year.

 

[steelypip]

I've also always been picky about being able to inspect and sweep flues myself. Grew up in the north country and we did actually have a chimney fire once in the 10" dia steel flue of the camp's Franklin stove and were awfully lucky that the tarred flat roof didn't catch on fire. After that, we swept and inspected the pipe before every heating season.

I figured out a new trick for inspecting the flue in the current house (brick chimney with masonry flue liners) - tie a rope around the cell phone, turn the flashlight function on, start the camera running in movie mode and lower it slowly down the flue. It works surprisingly well once you figure out how to hold the rope still enough and rotate it slowly.

 

[BKubu]

The key is to burn seasoned, good hardwood and let the fires burn hot (before banking them back later). No pine or other heavy-creosote-producing woods. I burn oak, maple, and locust mainly. Lastly, chimneys should be swept every cord of wood that is burned through a fireplace. I have been doing this religiously and, everytime I get the chimney swept by a professional, the guy tells me that I must be burning good wood because my chimney was not coated with creosote...just fine powder.

 

[ranchhopper]

I had a chimney fire not a major one as I was able to smother it fast but after that I installed a tee right above the woodstove with a removeable cap if I have another one I will pull the cap and use the large CO2 fire extinguisher next to the stove into the open tee to smother it. I cut and season my own wood and about once a month I run a brush through it. I can usually moniter the build up by tapping on the single wall part that runs up from the stove eight feet before going out the wall when it stops sounding tinny its time for a clean out.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

Let's remember that the METAL STACK on a wood burning stove is just as susceptible to CHIMNEY FIRE as a brick/stone and mortar fireplace chimney.

Just like our MVs, PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE pays off!!! PM your chimney ANNUALLY.

 

[waayfast]

With a wood stove chimney fire, get a large glass of water--open the stove door--pitch the glass of water into the stove and shut the door. The steam from the water hitting the fire goes up the pipe and smothers the fire. Repeat as needed.
Jim