Chimney fire

[Bill Jones]

If you have a stainless steel liner, there really isnt a lot to inspect. But start with the basics. Pull your cap off and take a look down into the pipe by having a strong light stuck up into the pipe from below.Look for bulges in the pipe that indicate that at some point the pipe got to hot and warped, often a sign that an excessive amount of cresote built up and caught fire. If you have any big bulges, have a pro come out and take a look. Big bulges can also have cracks in them, leaving hot exhaust gases to vent into the attic space.

When cleaning stainless steel liners, you need a Polypropylene type brush so that you don't scratch the surface of the pipe. Wire brushes, most commonly found in big box stores, should never be used because the wire will scratch the surface and give the creosote a rough surface to bond to.

when buying your brush, measure the length of the chimney, then add one more length of pole to the package so that you have some length to sweep up and down the pipe. Since you have a stove and not a fireplace, its really pretty easy to close the dampers, jump up on the roof, and sweep the pipe leaving the majority of the mess still in the stove.Do yourself a favor and leave the stove shut for thirty minutes after sweeping to give the dust a chance to settle. Dust can easily be shoveled out or use a shop vac.

After you clean the pipe and stove, build a very small fire, and I mean very small using no accelerate like diesel fuel, etc that can carry the flame right up the pipe. The dust in the pipe can hang out for some time, and can easily combust, and the resulting pop is hard on the pipe. What you want is a gentle heat wave to go up the pipe and vent the dust outside.

Other than that, not a lot to it. Cleaning your pipe is relatively easy and you should get yourself on a schedule so that your pipe stays clean. I burn mostly very hot burning wood like hickory, pecan, and white oak that has dried for usually two years, and its rare that I get more than a half a cup of creosote after a once a year cleaning. The amount you get can tell you a lot about how dry your firewood really is.

Thank you very much.

 

[ETpilot]

Once you have had a chimney fire, you will never mistake one again. Generally speaking, a chimney fire starts quick and builds to a loud roar. I have heard them being compared to a "oh ####, there is a tornado coming!" sound. A quick look in the fire box usually shows little fire in the box, but a ton of air rushing up the chimney. While there are a few good products on the market that will help douse a chimney fire, non are any better than a bucket of water and a cup.

When a chimney fire starts, fill a pan or pot with water as quick as you can, then throw a cup of water on the fire in the firebox, then slam the door shut.Wait ten seconds, then repeat again until the fire is out. You don't want to completely knock out the fire in the fire box, but instead send as much steam up the pipe as you can. The steam will knock out the fire as well as soak down the creosote fueling the fire. You can also use a garden sprayer filled with water if you want to keep one handy like on the back porch or something.

The best thing of coarse is to avoid the problem by routinely cleaning and inspecting your chimney. One of those "ounce of prevention...." kind of things.

If you dont know how to clean and inspect, learn now.

Thanks for this info. and also what you posted about cleaning.

 

[LazyJ]

I've figured out if you use the Rutland Creosote Remover on a crazy hot bed of coals right before you shut the stove down and cool it off to brush out the pipe the whole process is easier and more effective. It doesn't "remove" anything but it turns creosote from black tar to gray fluff much like the "controlled" chimney fire method which I used to use. In my experience, using the Creosote Remover without brushing and continuing to burn will accelerate creosote buildup and quickly result in a dangerous accumulation with lots of surface area to ignite.

During a regular winter I can get by with two clean outs, this year I've ran a choked fire so much that I just did my fourth sweep. I'm also noticing the high humidity we've had for several weeks is messing with me and if I don't keep a 2-3 day wood supply inside by the stove it smolders and smokes like green wood.

 

[Steve NW WI]

I've found the same as Lazy J with the creosote remover. They should call it creosote loosener. I use it before cleaning as well. I check my creosote factory (outside the house block and tile chimney - doesn't hold enough heat to stay clean by itself) weekly, and clean as needed. This year in the warm weather we've been having, I think I've cleaned 4 or 5 times already. Most years, I can run through the cold months without trouble. I have it down to a science now, maybe a 20 minute job tops, including disassemble and reassemble the stove pipes in the house.

 

[Lignator]

another thing that can help reduce buildup is wrapping your liner with ceramic insulation prior to installation. This helps keep the pipe hot, reducing the amount of creosote that can build up. this only works if there is enough extra space to fit it, adds ~4" to OD of the liner.

 

[dave_dj1]

You can't have it both ways, long burn times and a warm chimney! The older wood stoves that used more wood because they were not air tight ran hotter stack temps. Today we want to have a fire last 12 hours and use half as much wood as we used to. I can't speak from experience on catalytic stoves but I hear they have longer cleaner burns. Are the secondary air intake stoves working like they should or is it a myth?
Can anyone tell me the gauge (wall thickness) of the stainless liners? The only ones I've seen were paper thin and if it was up to me I would trust the good old masonry chimney long before I would the paper thin stainless.
thanks,
dave

 

[Fireaxman]

.... You can also use a garden sprayer filled with water if you want to keep one handy like on the back porch or something.

The best thing of coarse is to avoid the problem by routinely cleaning and inspecting your chimney. One of those "ounce of prevention...." kind of things.

If you dont know how to clean and inspect, learn now.

Avalancher covers it Very Well, as usual. Just wanted to add an "Amen" to the garden sprayer. The adjustable nozzle and curved tip on the garden sprayer lets you "Mist" up the chimney, generating more steam than a streight splash of water. Steam is an excellent fire fighter. We even "Controled" large oil field fires with the judiceous application of water into the "Vapor Ignition Zone" to generate steam.

Another good analogy for the sound of a really hot chimney fire is that you might think a jet airplane is flying low over your house - but then it hovers over your roof. Then add a sound like a big bowl of Rice Krispies on steroids as the creosote snaps, crackles, and pops when it burns.

If you live under a bunch of tall pine trees like I do it is also a good idea to keep your roof clean. It seems obvious, but it is easy to neglect - Sparks from a chimney fire are fully capable of igniting leaves and debris.

Hmmmmm. How Do he Know so Much do you suppose? " If you dont know how to clean and inspect, learn now." I confess I am a little lax. My masonry chimney stands out pretty tall and pretty far from the roof and it is a little more difficult to inspect and clean than most. Not so bad now that I have a good supply of clean, dry oak, but when I first cleared my property 20 years ago I accumulated a lot of unmarketable pine.

When I worked in Wyoming all we had was pine, and we burned a lot of it before it was fully cured. We were in a rented cabin with a stone chimney with no liner and no central heat. It accumulated creosote very rapidly. I have seen some, shall we say, pretty dramatic chimney fires.

 

[4seasons]

the best solution for a chimney fire

It is really quite simple. Don't have a chimney fire in the first place. Sure it is good info to know what to do if it does happen, but really it is easy to just never get in the situation to begin with. What causes chimney fires? Two things combine to start a chimney fire. Creosote buildup and a chimney getting hot enough to burn the creosote. Well if you burn like I have been lately in this mild weather (check out my 24 hour burn thread here http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/193129.htm) you are going to get some creosote buildup even with the 2-4 year old wood that I am burning. So I clean my chimney and stove pipe once a month when it is warm winter and every 2 months when it is cold and I can keep it burning hotter. Now you guys with the new EPA and smokeless stoves and furnaces can probably get by with much less cleaning but I am using an old stove and stretching my burn times to the limit so I know I am making lots of creosote. When I gets warm enough that I can let the fire go out I pull my stove pipe, scrape it out and run a brush down the chimney. I've been doing it this way for 20 years and never had a chimney fire. So while I am glad to know what to do if it ever does happen, I think I will stick to my just don't have one method that seems to be working.

P.S. One time when I was a teenager I hauled the wrong wood in for my parents to burn. I brought in the 2 week old stack instead of the 2 year old stack in the other end of the wood shed. After only a week of struggling to get a warm house and noticing way more smoke than normal when filling the stove Dad decided that I needed to clean the flu. It had only been 2 weeks since the last cleaning but the 90 degree elbow in the 8 inch pipe had creosote 3 inches thick in it and the pipe into the thimble had only a 1 inch hole down the middle. I learned the lesson about burning green wood that day.

 

[lumberjack48]

I hauled fresh cut wood home every night, it went from the pickup in to the house. I was a full time logger and never burned seasoned wood. I never had a issue with creosote or chimney fires. I can remember as far back as 1953, my father was a full time logger, we never had a pile of wood in the yard. I never seen him clean the chimney.

 

[avalancher]

I hauled fresh cut wood home every night, it went from the pickup in to the house. I was a full time logger and never burned seasoned wood. I never had a issue with creosote or chimney fires. I can remember as far back as 1953, my father was a full time logger, we never had a pile of wood in the yard. I never seen him clean the chimney.

I reckon that goes right along with never taking a look at the stove pipe then, right? And i reckon if you never looked at the pipe, you never knew you had a creosote problem. Nobody, and I repeat nobody, burns green wood right out of the woods and doesn't have creosote build up. Unless of coarse your stove pipe is 20 feet in diameter....


Consider yourself very lucky your house didn't burn down around your ears. Werent you the feller that drops 700 trees a week and doesnt even own a wedge?If my math works out right, thats one tree dropped every 3.5 minutes. You must be pretty fast.....

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/194166-4.htm#post3498212 Post #60

 

[Fireaxman]

I hauled fresh cut wood home every night, it went from the pickup in to the house. I was a full time logger and never burned seasoned wood. I never had a issue with creosote or chimney fires. I can remember as far back as 1953, my father was a full time logger, we never had a pile of wood in the yard. I never seen him clean the chimney.

Hmmm. I wonder if this has anything to do with the flamer in the old cabin. Ever been to Wyoming?

 

[4seasons]

I hauled fresh cut wood home every night, it went from the pickup in to the house. I was a full time logger and never burned seasoned wood. I never had a issue with creosote or chimney fires. I can remember as far back as 1953, my father was a full time logger, we never had a pile of wood in the yard. I never seen him clean the chimney.

I have to call B.S. on that one. Green wood every night and never clean a chimney? Only in a burn pit.

 

[homemade]

I do have to say being a fire fighter, I've noticed my fair share of chimney fire's. Water in any form should be used as a last resort. It will cause instant cooling of the masonry, causing cracking and spalling. It probably will cause mortar to fall out of joints and smoke leaks into the house. Granted this is for masonry only type chimney's. I personally don't have any experience with S.S. lined chimney's.

I would suggest having a dry chemical fire extinguisher close by. (the A.B.C. type) They have great extinguishing ability and work by removing oxygen. Water works by removing heat. Masonry has to work on slow heating and slow cooling or it will crack. Another product would be "Chimney Sticks". They look like road flairs that produce thick smoke and will extinguish by removing oxygen.

Now by no means I'm not saying don't use water because having to fix a leaky chimney is better half a house because you couldn't get the fire our fast enough. And DO NOT hesitate to call the fire department. They will have the equipment and ability to handle the situation safely. The insurance also may not cover any repairs unless the department was called, with the argument that the homeowner didn't use all precautionary measures to prevent fire extension.

Just my two cents