I just noticed that my chimney cap had an excessive buildup of creosote on it. I said to myself that it was not a good idea to have so much on the cap as it could catch my roof on fire. I decided to over fire my stove a bit and see if I could burn it off. Not such a good idea.
It turns out that creosote will catch on fire even if you are trying to get rid of it on purpose. I saw that the roof was in danger so I got my water extinguishers and the garden hose. I wet down the roof and kept going even though some embers were falling.
Long story short, I was able to burn off the creosote with no danger of burning the house down. The clean up after was a pain, but I could have been one over-firing away from catching my roof on fire.
The moral: check your stack regularly and clean or burn if necessary. Burning a little creosote is not so bad, but burning a lot of build up can burn your house down.
By the way, I burn nice dry wood. See the pictures...
It turns out that creosote will catch on fire even if you are trying to get rid of it on purpose. I saw that the roof was in danger so I got my water extinguishers and the garden hose. I wet down the roof and kept going even though some embers were falling.
Long story short, I was able to burn off the creosote with no danger of burning the house down. The clean up after was a pain, but I could have been one over-firing away from catching my roof on fire.
The moral: check your stack regularly and clean or burn if necessary. Burning a little creosote is not so bad, but burning a lot of build up can burn your house down.
By the way, I burn nice dry wood. See the pictures...