I made my first morning fire today. Before today it was warm enough that I only had to do 1 fire per day so I did them in the evening. I made the fire this morning the same way that I have been, based on some of the posts here - a couple logs, some newspapaer between them, some wood kindling on top, then some small logs on top of that. I lit it with my trusty blow torch and left both doors a crack open. It seemed to have started like it had every other time so I went upstairs. When I went back down 5 minutes later, the whole basement was flooded with thick smoke! I ran into the Tarm room to deal with the issue by opening the windows and adding more kindling to get the fire to switch from smoke mode to fire mode. I could barely get it done though. I basically had to run to a clear corner of the basement, get a lungful of fresh air, hold my breath, then go back to the boiler. Even with the windows open the smoke took forever to clear and ended up setting off the smoke alarms. So I had to open windows and doors throughout the house and get the baby boy dressed and go play outside for 15 minutes until the smoke cleared and the alarms stopped. This morning sucked! I guess I need to work on my fire starting routine.
