Chimney fire today

[ArcticLight]

Holy crap. I woke up as usual, got a small fire going. I usually run one for 1-2 hrs to take the chill out of the house.

Only today I had REALLY dry wood in there and stoked it.

Kept hearing this roaring like a truck coming up the road or a jet flying over - but no jet and no truck.

So I get on the roof with fire extinguisher, that helped, put fire out with water, that helped but the wood was glowing, so I knew the fire was by the dampner.

Fire dept came with a cool FLIR like device and found no hotspots.

They said hte chimney was CLEAN.

Weird but reminds me that everone should clean their chimney if you burn.

I cleaned the chimney but not the smoke plate (I think that's what he called it).

They also said those creosote logs do help, and I ran one about a month ago...

No damage, save for the embarrassment..

911 how can I help you?

Uh I think I have a chimney fire

{Give info}

Oh yeah can you ask them NOT to run the sirens, I don't want my neighbors knowing LOL

Well it was reminiscent of Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon calling the bomb squad for Murdoch as he was on the bomb laden toilet...


PS, it was my cat that alerted me to it, he woke up as if we were having an earthquake...

 

[427Cobra]

Re: Chimney fire today

Thank God you are GTG!

 

[Krav69]

Re: Chimney fire today

Dude, having had one of these as a kid, I have to ask...

Did that jet noise/blowtorch noise/minor earthquake noise make you fill yer pants?

I know I filled mine when I saw fire shooting 15 feet out the top of the chimney!!!

Glad you are GTG and posting this, a good reminder about this overlooked danger.

 

[Graham]

Re: Chimney fire today

Sounds like your cat deserves an extra treat!

 

[ArcticLight]

Re: Chimney fire today

Fire dept and chimney cleaning guy said it was the smok shelf, chimney was never in danger but yeah .

It acted like a jet engine/rocket.

Pretty scary.

Clean yer chimney's!!!!!

 

[Graham]

Re: Chimney fire today

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ArcticLight</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Clean yer chimney's!!!!! </div></div>Or be good to your cats.

 

[Bradley]

Re: Chimney fire today

Glad you're o.k.!

I had one myself 12/22/10. I won't ever forget that sound, nor the 10'-12' flames coming out of the chimney. It melted the aluminum rain guard and I had to replace it.

 

[HiCapMag]

Re: Chimney fire today

Arctic, you got an old fashined brick chimney, or just a metal tube with stuff built around the tube? Curious.

Thanks

 

[Jig Stick]

Re: Chimney fire today

Did you make s'mores?

 

[Switchblade]

Re: Chimney fire today

Glad you are g@g Scott.
When you think about cleaning your chimney, remember, there are professionals who do certain jobs and do it well. That's for a reason. They usually don't forget to clean important places within their job requirements.

 

[UKDslayer]

Re: Chimney fire today

Scary - I have had wood burning chimneys in apartments and loved them in the past but almost afraid to use my current one because I heard a story of a house burning down by my builder in the same neighborhood on its first use! Yikes!

 

[The Mechanic]

Re: Chimney fire today

I know I have seen them but anyone ever use the chimney cleaning logs? Looks like a regular fire log but supposed to clean the chimney as it burns. Not designed as a regular use log.

 

[MikeeBooshay]

Re: Chimney fire today

That's some roar isn't it?

My kid brother and I started one on Christmas eve one year, burning wrapping paper in my grandparents fireplace. Lucky no harm was done, no fire department in rural area those days. Major flames out of the chimney!

Glad you guys are OK!

 

[springer01]

Re: Chimney fire today

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: The Mechanic</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I know I have seen them but anyone ever use the chimney cleaning logs? Looks like a regular fire log but supposed to clean the chimney as it burns. Not designed as a regular use log. </div></div> That's what the OP is referring to when he talks about the creosote logs.

Glad to hear everything turned out ok!

 

[hayboy]

Re: Chimney fire today

Some kind of chemical in the logs,supposed to prevent cresote from building up. Putting salt in fire is "supposed" to do same. Water in a chimney fire is a no no, lots of time it will break the liners and you have to rebuild, better to smother it out from the inside. Been burning wood for about 30 yrs, clean chimney every year and have been lucky I guess.

 

[Shortdraw]

Re: Chimney fire today

Glad to hear no damages or injury. We have to clean chimmneys here a lot. The only trees on island are spruce, and most of it is burned green. Lots of sap to make creasote. That sound is wicked, sounds like a turbine in the house. Our last one melted the cap on the stack.

 

[ArcticLight]

Re: Chimney fire today

I'm back - homework is keeping me VERY busy of late.

I did run a creosote log about a month ago, the Fire Dept said hte chimney looked clean and not from burning....

But above my fireplace is a metal shelf and it's rather messy to clean and I did not clean it wh en I cleaned everything else.


Lesson learned..


My fireplace is a steel can of some sort, with brick inside it - has air that runs around it but it is NOT a fireplace insert (Not yet anyway)...

Clean those chimneys!!!


Yeah that roar - Whew....Shook hte house. Basically you hae a jet engine - think about it- it literally IS a Ram jet engine.

 

[shankster..]

Re: Chimney fire today

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mikee Booshay</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That's some roar isn't it?

<span style="font-weight: bold">My kid brother and I started one on Christmas eve one year, burning wrapping paper in my grandparents fireplace. Lucky no harm was done, no fire department in rural area those days. Major flames out of the chimney!</span>

Glad you guys are OK! </div></div>


Damn, My brother and I did the exact same thing burning wrapping paper at our farmhouse. We were told to burn it and we decided to see how big we could get the fire.

Parental lesson #431: Don't leave kids with a mound of paper and a fireplace unattended. It was really scary.


I'm glad you and your house are OK A.L. You dodged a big bullet.

 

[jcfd2201]

Re: Chimney fire today

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: hayboy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Some kind of chemical in the logs,supposed to prevent cresote from building up. Putting salt in fire is "supposed" to do same. Water in a chimney fire is a no no, lots of time it will break the liners and you have to rebuild, better to smother it out from the inside. Been burning wood for about 30 yrs, clean chimney every year and have been lucky I guess. </div></div>

We use water in the fire service to put out chimney fires! Too much water is a bad thing in a chimney fire. We use a water can (air pressurized, water filled, extinguisher) to introduce a small amount of water creationg steam. Water expands 1700 times its original volume when it becomes steam. A little bit of water creates a lot of steam which will extinguish the fire. Often times a half cup of water is more than enough to put the fire out an dnot cause any damage to the chimney. Anytime you have a chimney fire the chimney should be inspected before further use.

Glad everyone and the house is okay!!! I have seen plenty of total loss fires that started out as a chimney fire.