Wood Stove related fires this winter?

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tfdchief

Minister of Fire
Nov 24, 2009
3,336
Tuscola, IL
myplace.frontier.com
There are several firefighters on this forum and the rest of you no doubt would notice things like wood burning related fires in your area. So, I was wondering how many this year? Here, we have not had a single fire related to any type of heating appliance yet this winter....which makes me very happy, as those are often times very tragic. Hope the trend is the same for the rest of you.
 
We've had a few within the past few weeks here in NH. I started keeping track of them this year. Thankfully no one has been seriously injured but some homes were total losses. I remember one was due to improper clearance to a connector. A chimney fire then touched that one off. Another recently sounds like a masonry fireplace in poor condition allowed combustion gases to escape into the walls.
 
Another recently sounds like a masonry fireplace in poor condition allowed combustion gases to escape into the walls.
cmonSTART, That is a common one around here as there aren't that many of us 24/7 stove burners, more occational fireplace burners....who never think about the integrity of their fireplace or chimney, just assume.....yikes.
 
tfdchief said:
There are several firefighters on this forum and the rest of you no doubt would notice things like wood burning related fires in your area. So, I was wondering how many this year? Here, we have not had a single fire related to any type of heating appliance yet this winter....which makes me very happy, as those are often times very tragic. Hope the trend is the same for the rest of you.

Here in the big city . . . none . . . not even a chimney fire to my knowledge.

In the outlying areas I can think of a few . . . but overall fires due to wood heating equipment seems to not be that large of a cause so far this year . . . candle, arson, combustible left on a lamp, electrical, oil heating system . . . just a few of the causes I can remember at the moment. Of course this has also been a relatively mild winter for us here in Maine so far.
 
Here in the big city . . . none . . . not even a chimney fire to my knowledge. In the outlying areas I can think of a few . . . but overall fires due to wood heating equipment seems to not be that large of a cause so far this year . . . candle, arson, combustible left on a lamp, electrical, oil heating system . . . just a few of the causes I can remember at the moment. Of course this has also been a relatively mild winter for us here in Maine so far.
Jake, thanks for the reply. That's good, about the same here, although seems to be a drop in all heating related fires. Unfortunately, a rise in Arson fires. Looks like the one I posted New Years is looking that way. :-S Is your department primary response anywhere outside your city or just mutual aid?
 
tfdchief said:
Here in the big city . . . none . . . not even a chimney fire to my knowledge. In the outlying areas I can think of a few . . . but overall fires due to wood heating equipment seems to not be that large of a cause so far this year . . . candle, arson, combustible left on a lamp, electrical, oil heating system . . . just a few of the causes I can remember at the moment. Of course this has also been a relatively mild winter for us here in Maine so far.
Jake, thanks for the reply. That's good, about the same here, although seems to be a drop in all heating related fires. Unfortunately, a rise in Arson fires. Looks like the one I posted New Years is looking that way. :-S Is your department primary response anywhere outside your city or just mutual aid?

Just the City and mutual aid.
 
We have had a few chimney fires so far. I don't recall any total loss fires from wood.
A couple more from other heat sources.
I am with a county VFD. We have 9 stations in the county.
We have just had the snow and ice which paralyzes everything down here.
Last night we had a structure fire and 2 of the 4 stations already had orders not to move equipment from their stations due to steep grades coming out of their departments.
It really cuts down on response time when you have these conditions.

BTW I heard two more calls this afternoon one bieng another chimney fire and another a lady had built a fire in her fireplace and did not know she needed to open the damper....lol
The guys cleared the smoke and I guess she is good to go.
 
A couple of fires near us so far, one a candle, the other a woodburner. The woodburner is at the bottom of the report.

Nice bit of bravery from the bloke in the candle fire, he escapes and leaves a woman and baby to fend for themselves............

And the woodburner gets just a tiny mention at the bottom.......

I have no idea how a log can fall out of a woodburning stove and end up on a wooden floor unless the door is left open and there is no proper hearth :)

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Candles-warning/article-3041095-detail/article.html
 
Last month there were 2 fires within a week of each other in my town related to improper ash disposal. In both cases hot ashes were placed in a combustible trashcan that caught on fire - one was outside damaging siding and the other was inside a garage causing smoke damage also to a car inside. Remember to let those ashes cool for days in your metal cans before disposal!
 
I've heard of none in our area. I hope this continues.
 
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