chimney fire

[DakotaBrat]

Yesterday while I was dozing on the couch we had a chimney fire. Hubby caught it as it was starting. He said all of a sudden he got the smell. I never smelled it while I was dozing, but I sure did while it was burning out. He quickly shutdown the stove and it took about 3 hrs. to burnout. No fire or sparks coming out of the chimney. We thought that we had been using wood that has been under cover and drying for 3 yrs. and burning out the chimney once a week would be ok. Guess not. An oldtimer up here told my hubby to toss potato peeling into the stove and it will help with the creosote. Has anyone one used those chimney burning logs and can you use them whie you're using the stove. This is are only source of heat and this morning its -23 here. TIA

[Common Tator]

So glad your hubby caught it in time! It sounds like time to call out the chimney sweep!

[jassytoo]

Never used the logs so I can't say about them. IMO nothing beats cleaning the chimney with a brush. We do it about once a month if the woodstove is going all the time. It's easy and fast, although we do only have a one story home. DH goes on the roof, lowers a rope with a weight on it down the chimney and I take off the weight and put on the flue brush. Then DH slowly pulls it up the chimney, cleans off the chimney cap puts it back on and that's it. Been working for us for 30 years. Only down side is you have to let the fire go to do it.

[Graystone]

Once while burning the first fire of the season at my parents house the chimney caught fire. Flames where coming out the top of the chimney and the stove pipe got red hot. Afterwards a neighbor told me dumping rock salt down the chimney would extinguish the fire. I don't know if this is right or not.

[snowshoehair]

You can also unload a dry chemical fire extinguisher into the bottom clean out of your chimney during a chimney fire. The draft will suck the chemical up and put out the fire. FD did this at my house for my chimney fire.

[big rockpile]

I always burn one good Hot fire a day.

big rockpile

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by big rockpile

I always burn one good Hot fire a day.

big rockpile

Yes, if the chimney is too large for the stove or the fire is burned low all the time creosote can collect. You should make it a point to burn it out with a large fire once a week.

[Ross]

Agree with the sizing issue and hot fire. It is strange such well dried wood should make a creosote problem but you always need to check the chimney regardless. I just scoped my neighbors chimney as he hadn't cleaned it in 5 years....... "yikes"..... but it was open and clean. Godo wood through the right size, burned good and hot......... and you should be fine. Not that you don't need to check it out.

[haypoint]

Potato peels, aluminum cans and a real hot fire is no substitute for dry wood and regular brushing.
There is a product that looks and works like a flare. It absorbs the oxygen. Light it and throw it into the stove and it puts out the fire in the chimney. Chimfex or something like that.

A chimney fire often causes damage to the clay liner of a chimney. If you have cracked the liner, creosote will seep behind the liner and the next chimney fire will further damage the liner and might damage the blocks of the chimney and could cause a fire.

If you don't have any liner (older homes might not) then a chimney fire damages the mortar and bricks. Each time you have a chimney fire the damage increases.

You need to check the creosote buildup regularly. You can climb onto the roof and shine a bright light down into the chimney. You can lay on your back and stick your head into the clean-out opening. I'd suggest that you take a hand held mirror, during the day, hold it in the clean-out opening and you should be able to see the inside of the chimney.

A daily hot fire might limit the build up of creosote, but it isn't a substitute to regular brushing.

[WhiteWillow]

Chimney fires can be so scary and so dangerous. When we had a wood burning furnace we did use the chimney logs. We picked up a variety of products from Home Depot. In addition to that we purchased a chimney brush. It was a dirty job but it did a good and thorough job. In my opinion, the chimney logs do an adequate job and can be a useful part of preventative maintenance but you should not rely only on them. In my estimation they solve about 35% of the problem. Not bad when you are using them in conjunction with 2-3 other measures.

[bill83]

What about using salt? Or the stuff in the little bucket of "Chimney Cleaner" that Lehman's sells?

[rambler]

For the original poster, the danger is that your chimney liner is damaged. A chimeny fire will crack the clay liners or melt through/warp/crack the metal ones, so you need your chimney checked out to make sure it doesn't have a hole through to the interior.

--->Paul

[65284]

Originally Posted by bill83

What about using salt? Or the stuff in the little bucket of "Chimney Cleaner" that Lehman's sells?

Dumping salt on a hot fire is an excellent way to kill yourself. Salt when exposed to high heat turns to a very lethal gas. I remember several years ago a fellow killed himself by dumping salt into a large outdoor firing kiln trying to glaze some pottery. That's how salt glazing is done, but he was ignorant of the proper technique, more than a little careless, and paid the ultimate price.

[bill83]

65284--
Thanks for the word about salt!! Glad I haven't tried it yet. A neighbor told me that it was a family habit to throw a handful of salt in the stove once a week to deep the creosote down.

[Alice In TX/MO]

Brush clean the chimney. That's what you KNOW works.

[Cabin Fever]

Always keep a plastic bag of ice cubes in your freezer....not individual cubes, but a bag of cubes. If you have a chimney fire, quickly toss that bag of cubes in the firebox as fast as you can, then shut down the air intakes. The melting ice should put out the fire and the steam created should put out the chimney fire. The reason you don't want to throw individual cubes in the fire is because it will likely take longer thereby allowing more air into the firebox which exacerbates the problem.

[titansrunfarm]

Thanks to this thread I've called a local chimney sweep to come out to check and clean both our chimneys on Friday, we haven't ever had them brushed, for five years we've been using the store bought 'cleaner sticks'. Oy Vey!

[shellyr44]

last spring we had a chimney fire and we put it out with a fire extinguisher and called 911. The fire department checked the chimney and around the wall and upstairs to see if there might be any hot spots. They told us not to use any of those sticks sold for cleaning chimneys. We had been using them along with our monthly cleaning. Those sticks caused our fire.

[Annsni]

We don't use our fireplace for heat but just pleasure but we can get HOT fires in there when we do have them (hmmm - might want one tonight....). We still have our chimney guy come out each fall to clean it and inspect it. He's wonderful - honest as the day is long - and I've gotten him about 30 customers so he actually doesn't charge us anymore. LOL But when he did charge us, it was $50 plus tax. $50 a year is a great insurance IMO. I'd know we were cleaned and not worry about losing our home.