Prevention

How to prevent chimney fires

Let’s be careful and have a safe sleep with a clean sweep.

Chimney fires happen when the creosote that has accumulated inside your stovepipe and chimney ignites. Creosote is the unburned flue gases which have condensed on the cooler surfaces of your stack and chimney. These gases are unburned because there was not enough air in the stove for complete combustion. When combustion is complete all the smoke is burned off in the stove. Achieving proper combustion is easy with any wood stove. Allowing enough air to the wood for a half an hour after loading will burn off most smoke from the wood. Burning your stove hot with only a few pieces of wood for an hour EVERY day will help reduce creosote build up. The heat output of your stove should be controlled with the amount of fuel you load it with NOT by the damper controls; they are controlling how much air you are allowing the fire.

Burning cardboard, pizza boxes, beer bottle cartons, or any large amounts of paper will cause an INTENSE fire and large flames. Many chimney fires are started this way, even with very little creosote buildup. Burning seasoned hardwoods will not necessarily prevent the buildup of creosote. Cedar, pine, green wood, and any lumber will assure you of HEAVY creosote build up FAST.

Cleaning your chimney whenever it is needed is also very important. No one can say how often it will need it. It depends on too many variables: how you operate your stove, how cold your chimney gets, the wood you are burning, and sometimes the type of stove you have. A complete chimney sweeping once a year is a must, to remove the creosote and to check the safety of the chimney. Many stoves need cleaning more often. I recommend inspecting your stovepipe every two or three weeks during burning season. This way you can see for yourself how your chimney is doing. Cleaning the stovepipe will also help prevent fires from starting in your stack pipe. In non-airtight stoves and open fireplaces having the chimney cleaned every three cords of wood or once a year is the general rule. An even more dangerous situation than creosote buildup can be that your stove is to close to combustibles; firewood, newspapers stored too close, improper clearances from the walls. Do not store or leave anything that can burn within 36” from the stove.

Wood heat is economical for many of us. It also lets us feel more independent of rising natural gas and oil costs. We can conserve much more energy by heating our homes with wood than anything else we do individually. Let us learn to use it intelligently and learn to accept the responsibility for the added maintenance that comes with it. Saving a buck is not good if we lose our home or families.