Aurora said:
I had a tiny chimney fire, the neighbors called and the 5-7 firemen arrived. I'm used to occasional chimney fires and you damper down everything and are very watchful. Well, the firemen put some sort of chemical into my beautiful Mansfield Hearthstone, said it wouldn't harm anything. HA! First off, the chemical dust went everywhere and it causes severe burning of nasal passages, throat and eyes, in addition to coughing. Everything has to be cleaned in the whole house. Animals are also having respiratory problems.
Secondly, which is really scaring me, is that my stove is full of sticky black goo, the reburner tubes are full of it! I removed the ashes, loose powder and vacuumed. Then I scraped what I could off the interior of the stove and vacuumed again. I started up a fire hoping the goo will burn off. There is an acid smell and the black goo has softened only so far. I am crossing my fingers
Aurora
I'm curious as to where and how they applied this chemical . . . we will occasionally use either baggies with the powder from an ABC rated chemical extinguisher or an actual ABC chemical extinguisher on the fire . . . but typically we drop the baggies from the top or spray the extinguisher in the clean-out. In the first case the chemical typically is limited to the chimney due to the natural draft. In the second case, we would attempt to shut the clean out door afterwards, but depending on how fast the door is shut (or if it's shut) some of the chemical may come out. If sprayed inside the stove, yeah, I suspect there would be a mess all over the place.
I suspect this is monoammonium phosphate -- it's typically yellow in color. It's also very fine so it can get everywhere. It is slightly corrosive to metal. Some folks have had some respiratory issues -- typically folks with compromised respiratory problems such as asthma.
When sprayed directly on to a fire (flammable fuel fire in my case) there is some black sludge that is the residual chemical.
Not knowing, it almost sounds as if they sprayed a fire extinguisher or tossed the chemical directly into the firebox . . . something I would be a bit leery of doing myself . . . putting it down the chimney would be my preferred option as this is typically where the chimney fire is "located."
To get rid of this (if it was in fact sprayed in the firebox) I would try physically removing it by scraping and cleaning it out as best as you can vs. attempting to burn it off since the chemical is in fact designed to inhibit the chemical reaction of the burning process (vs. removing the oxygen like a CO2 extinguisher or cooling down the fire to blow the ignition temperature such as a water extinguisher.)
My advice.
1) The next time the firefighters come strongly suggest to them that they open the clean-out door (assuming it's a masonry chimney) and have them either throw a quarter to half cup of water on any exposed hot cinders or bits of creosote that may have dropped to the base of the chimney . . . or spray the fire extinguisher up the clean out.
An alternative would be to drop the baggies from the top down . . . generally I try to stay clear of the firebox unless I absolutely have to put out the fire that way.
2) Start regularly inspecting and cleaning your chimney . . . and if possible make sure you're burning seasoned wood and burning hot enough.
