911 fire dept call

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oilstinks

Minister of Fire
Jan 25, 2008
585
western NC
So i finally broke doown and started cleaning my garage yesterday. I got about 3 foot up one wall and my pager went off. Smoke filled house possible struture fire. We get on scene and there is no fire in the house so we pull apart the single wall flue pipe to check things out.The metel pipe had about 3/16 oc creasote in it. I started checking the block flue and found at least an inch thick buildup of mostly glazey creasote. I run my arm up through the thimble as far as i could and my fist balled up would barely fit. Remember this is a block flue with clay liners. This was absolutly the worst i had ever seen. No cleanout door on the bottom of it either by the way. So when it is cleaned it will probably fill up to the thimble. Moral of the story clean your flue if nothing else once a year. More is better if unsure. A detail i forgot to mention is that it was a cook stove. No one was hurt so thats good. At least i got out of cleaning my garage. KEEP IT CLEAN.
 
Better yet, burn right, and you won't have a problem with creosote buildup.
 
Thank godness no one was hurt. It is always good to be reminded what to do and why we need to do it. I hope that you were able to help the homeowners learn from their mistake. Oh and btw thanks for being a fireman, I don't know if I could rush into a burning building, risking life and limb, the way you guys do.
 
Good reminder and thank you for firefighter service.
 
the lady was in her 70s burning green wood. Chances are she probably wont changer her ways. She has to rely on someone ele to bring her wood and she gets it green i suspect.
 
Wow, that is really a shame. Good that you got there when you did but the future does not sound too rosey for her. Now go back to cleaning that garage. lol
 
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