Fire in my chimney this morning

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Gridlock

Member
Feb 13, 2010
223
New Paltz, NY
My girlfriend burst into the bathroom as I was shaving this morning yelling that a lot of smoke was pouring into the house from the wood stove that I repacked about 15 minutes prior. This has happened before; the chimney sweep thought the problem was the smoke coming down a second flue that is in the same chimney. The difference this time was the bottom of the flue at the 90 degree junction of the T fitting was on fire!! I calmly put out the fire that I could see with a fire extinguisher and engaged the CAT in order to control the fire and cool down the smoke exiting the stove. It's now about 40 minutes later, and there is no more smoke coming out of the chimney, so everything is Ok. Naturally I'm not going to start it up again until I get it checked out.

Any ideas what could have happened? A completely new flue was installed just before this season, so it certainly should have been clean. I always use the CAT and monitor CAT temperatures as well as occasionally viewing the smoke coming out the chimney, and everything seems to be operating correctly. Could some debris have fallen down the chimney into the flue? I'm wondering this since there is no cap on the flue; there is a stone slab that sits about a foot or so above the flue which keeps rain from getting in.

By the way, the flue setup is as follows: An 8 inch round single wall pipe insulated with rock wool (or something similar) is used. There is about a foot horizontal run coming out of the stove which goes into a 90 degree T fitting, which then rises about 23 feet through a masonry and stone chimney, which is half and half interior/exterior. The draft is very good (actually a little too strong) ever since the flue was changed from a 6 to an 8 inch.

Thanks in advance.
 
If you had a chimney fire w/ a cat stove in a brand new liner, then something is not correct.

Possibilities:

1. Your wood isn't dry enough and you are filling your chimney w/ creosote

2. Your cat is old/broken and it isn't doing it job at cleaning your flue gasses.

3. You are running your stove too cool causing a build-up of creosote.

4. An air leak in a joint could be causing the gasses to cool and condense into creosote

5. Some / All of the above.

pen
 
Whoa! Scary to be sure. Once again, methinks Pen is right on.
 
Check your cat bypass damper gasket to be sure all the smoke goes through the cat.. I recently encountered excess creosote on my new liner/stovepipe which I think caused it...

Ray
 
Thanks so much for the responses. The chimney sweep was here this morning, and it turned out not to be a chimney fire, but the fact that the wrong sealant was used between the flue and blockoff plate. The sealant was only good to 600 degrees, and it caught on fire. The sweep apologized and is going to rectify the situation. I posted another topic asking what type of sealant (or insulation should be used for this application.

Thanks again. I could always rely on good responses on hearth.com!
 
If I am in your shoes I am extremely relieved that this was not more serious.

As far as "rectifying" the situation..... Make sure that you keep a very close on on other aspects of the individual's work so you are not surprised again.

It is one of the reasons why I choose to be my own chimney sweep as I have a vested interest in getting it done.

All in all though you are blessed to be safe and sound after a scare like this.
 
Hello

It is possible a bird or squirrel or some critter got in and fell down the flue and started cooking!

I suggest adding some screening to the open sides at the top of the chimney just to be safe.
 
Thanks, they ended up using rock wool to seal the area between the blockoff plate and the flue pipe. It looks Ok, but I am having a another stove place come to inspect everything.

The problem defintely wasn't an animal, though it is possible that one can make there way down the flue. I'll ask the folks that come inpsect the whole setup to see what they think about adding a screen.

Thanks for the replies!
 
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