My shop caught on fire last Thanksgiving

[carvinmark]

A few years ago I built a cement addition to my metal pole barn that is 4'X4' with a poured concrete floor. I put my wood burner inside and made an opening in my barn for access. 6:00am Thanksgiving I noticed sparks coming over the roof and ran out to find the wood and shingle roof on my little addition was on fire---SO WAS THE ROOF ON MY BARN! I managed to salvage my barn, thank god ! The fire chief said the wood roof self combusted and that it should have happened sooner. Plans this summer are for angle iron trusses (homemade) and sheetmetal roof--NO COMBUSTIBLES.I almost lost everything...please be careful.I will always burn wood cause there is no better heat in my opinion.

 

[rmihalek]

Did the flue pipe ignite the wood or was it due to embers coming out of the flue?

 

[carvinmark]

no embers, the fire dept said that my truses had self combusted from the heat,not flames or embers.Bummer...Mark

 

[stumpguy]

wow that's scary. what kind of pipe were you using near the trusses?

 

[JPP]

I'm thinking of adding a stove in my hunting cabin.
What should I be careful of? How should I install it?

We had a woodstove installed in the house and the outside pipe doesn't get hot to the touch. It is a heavy duty stainless steel pipe.

 

[carvinmark]

flue pipe

wow that's scary. what kind of pipe were you using near the trusses?

Stainless insulated thru the roof.In a small room with the roof being about five foot tall ( must have been too short). I will make it all steel this year.Ya,it scared the $hi- out of me.

 

[stumpguy]

I'm thinking of adding a stove in my hunting cabin.
What should I be careful of? How should I install it?

We had a woodstove installed in the house and the outside pipe doesn't get hot to the touch. It is a heavy duty stainless steel pipe.

buy a quality pipe and follow instructions to the tee. make sure the pipe is rated for burning wood. or have it professionally installed. a quality chimney will NOT be cheap.

 

[turnkey4099]

I'm thinking of adding a stove in my hunting cabin.
What should I be careful of? How should I install it?

We had a woodstove installed in the house and the outside pipe doesn't get hot to the touch. It is a heavy duty stainless steel pipe.

If the stove was new, you should have the papers. They will list the required clearances to combustibles. Be sure to follow them even if it requires putting the stove out from the wall further than you would like. There are various things you can add to the wall to cut down on the clearance.

Harry K

 

[SWI Don]

It sounds like you were trying to do the right thing by surrounding it in a block room. The problem is that the room probably got warm enough that it dried the wood roof framing to the point that its flash point was reached by the room heat.

When I was in the fire dept we had a house fire that was determined to be a case of spontaneous combustion of the wood framing around a large masonary fireplace. Read several tons of rocks & mortar in the corner of an addition. It took several years before the wood got that dry but you can get wood dry enough that it will spontaneously combust.

Don

 

[carvinmark]

That makes a lot of sense, I just never thaught about it when I built it.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Do you have water service to the barn? A DIY sprinker system can be done pretty cheap. I'm not sure how you would protect the roof though.

 

[carvinmark]

No sprinkler system, don't think it would have helped the roof, but not a bad idea.