"Almost" tragedy.

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farmer steve

outstanding in my field, 5150
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My wife woke me up Wed. nite and said there was an ambulance in front of our barn. When i talked to the driver he said the neighbors CO detector went off. CO levels were over 50ppm. They were ok. Seems the wood stove backed up from a dirty chimney. Now for some history. They moved in 2 years ago. When i heard him sawing wood (spring 2017) i went over to chat. He was cutting green hickory,oak and maple. I asked him if he had dry wood to burn for winter 2017. He said what he was cutting would be dry enough to burn. I told him it should sit for at least 2 years. The property they bought has plenty of dead wood on it. The neighbor called me the next day to tell me what all the commotion was about. I offered to help him clean the chimney and stove but he declined. (i don't wear a black hat) He has the same brand of stove that i do and i told him how to clean it out and to make sure the door gasket was good. I told him i would show him proper burning of the stove but no response.
 
My wife woke me up Wed. nite and said there was an ambulance in front of our barn. When i talked to the driver he said the neighbors CO2 detector went off. CO2 levels were over 50ppm. They were ok. Seems the wood stove backed up from a dirty chimney. Now for some history. They moved in 2 years ago. When i heard him sawing wood (spring 2017) i went over to chat. He was cutting green hickory,oak and maple. I asked him if he had dry wood to burn for winter 2017. He said what he was cutting would be dry enough to burn. I told him it should sit for at least 2 years. The property they bought has plenty of dead wood on it. The neighbor called me the next day to tell me what all the commotion was about. I offered to help him clean the chimney and stove but he declined. (i don't wear a black hat) He has the same brand of stove that i do and i told him how to clean it out and to make sure the door gasket was good. I told him i would show him proper burning of the stove but no response.

Myself included most people are stubborn and don’t want help even if they need it. Hopefully he learned his lesson but it doesn’t sound like it.

Is this his first woodstove?

If so then he should be accepting all the help he can get.


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Did you mean CO carbon monoxide or CO2 carbon dioxide? CO is a true killer. As I understand it, CO latches onto your red blood cells and cannot be removed. Even at low levels, it builds up over time and you suffocate to death. Wicked dangerous. CO2 can also be deadly but only if it is in high enough concentrations to compete with breathable oxygen.
 
My wife woke me up Wed. nite and said there was an ambulance in front of our barn. When i talked to the driver he said the neighbors CO2 detector went off. CO2 levels were over 50ppm. They were ok. Seems the wood stove backed up from a dirty chimney. Now for some history. They moved in 2 years ago. When i heard him sawing wood (spring 2017) i went over to chat. He was cutting green hickory,oak and maple. I asked him if he had dry wood to burn for winter 2017. He said what he was cutting would be dry enough to burn. I told him it should sit for at least 2 years. The property they bought has plenty of dead wood on it. The neighbor called me the next day to tell me what all the commotion was about. I offered to help him clean the chimney and stove but he declined. (i don't wear a black hat) He has the same brand of stove that i do and i told him how to clean it out and to make sure the door gasket was good. I told him i would show him proper burning of the stove but no response.

Didn't Darwin write something about this?
 
Myself included most people are stubborn and don’t want help even if they need it. Hopefully he learned his lesson but it doesn’t sound like it.

Is this his first woodstove?

If so then he should be accepting all the help he can get.
His first inside stove. Said he grew up with OWB.


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Did you mean CO carbon monoxide or CO2 carbon dioxide? CO is a true killer. As I understand it, CO latches onto your red blood cells and cannot be removed. Even at low levels, it builds up over time and you suffocate to death. Wicked dangerous. CO2 can also be deadly but only if it is in high enough concentrations to compete with breathable oxygen.
Carbon monoxide.
 
he may need to have the professionals come and clean and inspect his stove for the insurance claim.

however you would think he would just say so if that is the case.

why he wouldn't cut dead wood first is beyond me but some people think you can only burn certain wood an dead wood is no good.

I would guess he probably will be the type that has convinced himself through his own wrong doing that wood stoves are horribly dangerous and swears them off all together .
see it all the time do EVERYTHING WRONG and it is the machine or devices fault, why because they just can't admit it was their fault ever.
 
A guy i know has a very bad habit, in my opinion, of loading his stove totally full at night, then when he goes to bed, turns it way down. Couple of wks ago, he said, he had a hard time getting it to burn, so he went up on the roof to check the chimney. There was a hole just the size of the top of a pop can showing in the chimney!! This was a 8'' pipe, all the rest was pure creosote. NOT GOOD! Me, i'd rather have to heat up the house by lighting a new fire every morning instead of killing my wife or I by burning the house down, or having a bunch of bad air in the house, and die from that. I will put some wood in before i go to bed, and turn it down, but,i do not load it totally packed full of wood. That way, in the morning i have a some what good bed of coals, which will start a good fire within a very little time. I love life, i want all of it i can have. I'm also ''blessed'' by being able to wake up 2-3 times a night, and checking the stove, or just looking around outside with my dog, so, i keep a pretty close eye on things and, keep my chimney cleaned more than the average person does.
 
My wife woke me up Wed. nite and said there was an ambulance in front of our barn. When i talked to the driver he said the neighbors CO detector went off. CO levels were over 50ppm. They were ok. Seems the wood stove backed up from a dirty chimney. Now for some history. They moved in 2 years ago. When i heard him sawing wood (spring 2017) i went over to chat. He was cutting green hickory,oak and maple. I asked him if he had dry wood to burn for winter 2017. He said what he was cutting would be dry enough to burn. I told him it should sit for at least 2 years. The property they bought has plenty of dead wood on it. The neighbor called me the next day to tell me what all the commotion was about. I offered to help him clean the chimney and stove but he declined. (i don't wear a black hat) He has the same brand of stove that i do and i told him how to clean it out and to make sure the door gasket was good. I told him i would show him proper burning of the stove but no response.

I had a similar situation. sometime after midnight I was woke up by the CO detector screaming at me. I sleep in my birthday suit but it didn't stop me, Middle of January, temp probably about 20 degrees and I was out in the yard checking for chimney fire. Nope. Opened doors/windows, opened all the stove drafts. Hour later the detector is silent and we went back to bed leaving the stove wide open. Check next day on the chimney (I had cleaned it just prior to the heating season. The bird screen in the cap was totally blocked by dry powdery creosote. That bird screen disappeared instanter. No further problems since.
 
A guy i know has a very bad habit, in my opinion, of loading his stove totally full at night, then when he goes to bed, turns it way down. Couple of wks ago, he said, he had a hard time getting it to burn, so he went up on the roof to check the chimney. There was a hole just the size of the top of a pop can showing in the chimney!! This was a 8'' pipe, all the rest was pure creosote. NOT GOOD! Me, i'd rather have to heat up the house by lighting a new fire every morning instead of killing my wife or I by burning the house down, or having a bunch of bad air in the house, and die from that. I will put some wood in before i go to bed, and turn it down, but,i do not load it totally packed full of wood. That way, in the morning i have a some what good bed of coals, which will start a good fire within a very little time. I love life, i want all of it i can have. I'm also ''blessed'' by being able to wake up 2-3 times a night, and checking the stove, or just looking around outside with my dog, so, i keep a pretty close eye on things and, keep my chimney cleaned more than the average person does.

You cannot build that level of creosote by stoking the stove full and damping it down low for overnight burn. I know because that's exactly how I've operated my stove for many years and have had no creosote issues. Your friend has more problems than just that. I strongly suspect he is burning green wood also and possibly does not do at least one hot burn a day to dry out any creosote buildup like he should be doing.
 
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