My 1st chimney fire?

[shub]

Well, I may have had a chimney fire today.

I am new to wood stoves. I just got my Jotul F3 CB installed, coming up on a month ago soon. In preparation for it's installation, I had a Selkirk Class A double wall installed.

Here's what happened. Let me just confess for starters, that I did two stupid things. Then, I'll explain what happened further.

1. While spring cleaning, I broke down a pallet in my backyard, and decided I was going to burn it. Aside from the fact the wood is the furthest thing from seasoned hardwood, I took it a step further by choosing to burn it even after it amounted to a bunch of shim sized splinters during dismantling. I believe this would be considered a "kindling fire", and from what I have read, you do not want those to fill your firebox (but that hadn't stopped me.)

2. I opened the ash door to get it going, since it was wet and I wanted to dry it out fast. But to make matters worse, I left it open too long (around 3 minutes...)

What seemed like a great hot fire at first, began to feel more like a terrible hot fire. First, the DSP stove pipe elbow going into my wall thimble started smoking. It set off my smoke alarm. Secondly, the Selkirk chimney starting making crackling and popping noises inside. Lastly, the little adapter connected to my stove pipe elbow, which permits connection to the Selkirk Chimney connector, began glowing a dull red. In the aftermath, the adapter still remains amber in color (instead of stainless steel). I'd like to add, that during the majority of this fire, the stove surface was around 300 degrees, so I don't think it suffered any damage.

In response to this event, I opened the primary air control all the way, and then closed the ash door. My hope was that by opening the primary, a vacuum wouldn't get created when I closed the ash door. Seemed to go OKAY. Then, I slowly closed the primary. Then I slowly closed the secondary air. After about 15 minutes things started settling down. The chimney stopped roaring, and the stove itself started to heat-up instead, getting up to around 600 before cooling off as well. I will say, that I had yet to see secondary combustion work so well!

Outdoors, flecks of black, paper like ash were belching out of the chimney at a continuous rate, littering my roof and the lawn. Though, flames never came out of the top of the chimney, and after just 15 minutes it didn't burn to go up on the roof and touch the top of the chimney with bare hand.

It would seem as if I did have a chimney fire, I am going to need to alter my burn practices. I suspect it's unusual for me to have enough creosote to cause one if I were doing things right. The only other possibility that would make it not my fault, is in the chimney design, which includes a 2ft horizontal run going to my Tee.

But, the more important question for me is- is it still safe to use this chimney?

Thank you,
Dedicated Noob, happy to have not burned down his house.

 

[Otis B Driftwood]

WOW! what a great introductory thread! Don't think anyone's beat this.

BTW, if you want to burn your house down, call me, I'll do it cheap.

Call a pro. May be a good idea to have a proper inspection.

 

[ohlongarm]

WOW! what a great introductory thread! Don't think anyone's beat this.

BTW, if you want to burn your house down, call me, I'll do it cheap.

Call a pro. May be a good idea to have a proper inspection.

Hope you live close to a fire department,alls well that ends well I guess.Glad your not homeless.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Could have been a chimney fire but maybe not. Good idea to have someone check the chimney and the stove needs to be checked too. Make sure no cracks or warps. Gaskets okay? This sort of thing.Could a chimney fire happen after only a month use? Absolutely yes. Poor wood can plug a chimney with creosote really fast. Another good reason to have a 2-3 year wood supply on hand all the time. That way you know your wood will be ready to burn.

For sure the biggest mistake was to open that ash door. I highly recommend never to do that again. Even if that wood was wet, it was probably just exterior moisture and the wood was still very dry. Certainly not a good idea to fill the stove with pallet wood either.

You have learned a valuable lesson by all this. Please don't ever forget it! Good luck.

 

[jimbom]

....The only other possibility that would make it not my fault, is in the chimney design, which includes a 2ft horizontal run going to my Tee....

Not a problem that I can see. Our Encore rear exit horizontal (transition+tee) is about two feet to the center line of the vertical. No problem to date.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Right Jim. I should have posted too that we have a 2' horizontal. But the thing to be concerned about is if there is any raise in that horizontal section. 1/4" per foot is code. We went 1/2" per foot rise and have no problem.

 

[BrotherBart]

The F3 has that startup air control in the center under the door. There is no reason on this Earth to open the ash pan door to start a fire. As to the stuff flying out of the chimney, you crapped up the connector pipe between the stove and the thimble burning wet wood or not burning hot enough fires for that month and set it off today. That is why you didn't see flames coming out of the chimney. The action was taking place in the pipe inside your house. Folks here may tell you otherwise, but if that happens here that connector pipe goes to the landfill and is replaced.

 

[shub]

Thanks for the replies!

I know opening the ash door was a bad idea. I usually use the primary air control under the window, but the ash door tempts me on occasion with the roaring flames. Opening the door for 5 minutes has set a full fire box aflame with fury from a single wimpy coal. I've learned my lesson though... I am not a blacksmith, just a homeowner with a wood stove.

My chimney installer is coming to inspect my chimney next week. Hopefully all is well. If in fact it was just the stove pipe that took the damage, that would be a relief. I'll be down $200, instead of $1000... or worse yet, down the value of my house...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Right on shub. Lesson learned and just carry on from there. You'll do fine.

 

[loon]

Right on shub. Lesson learned and just carry on from there. You'll do fine.

x2 savage

loon

 

[clr8ter]

When stainless steel (or non-stainless steel) is heated, it turns color. No, it doesn't go back to shiny. It's just on the surface, a scotch brite pad would take it off. (Go visit a maple sugar shack. Most of the ones I've seen have 20' of exposed stainless chimney inside the shack, and the WHOLE thing is that amber color.) So, nothing unusual there. My stove and the part of the chimney that's inside the fireplace makes noises every time it heats up or cools down. Nothing unusual there, either. It's gotten to the point after only 2 seasons that I can somewhat judge what is going on with the stove from another part of the house just by the sounds it's making. As far as the elbow glowing, I don't know, never had that one happen. Backwoods savage is right, too, those pallets that have been around a while are usually BONE dry, even if damp on the outside.

 

[mfglickman]

Wow! Safe burning to you from now on - now's the time to start scrounging wood for the next 2-3 years, if you have not already. And even so you may be burning bio bricks or other fuel for part of next winter, unless you can come on a stash of seasoned wood somewhere.

Scary - glowing chimneys and stoves are never a good thing.

 

[tfdchief]

I have been to a lot of chimney fires in 34 years on the job. I would agree with BB, the fire was probably in your connector pipe from what you described. Still should have it checked out and be careful with the ash pan

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

It's possible that this was a chimney fire . . . but it sounds like the issue was more in the air control . . . or lack thereof. As others have said . . . using the ash pan door to help get a fire going is a bad idea. That said, most of us have probably done it before we either a) were educated as to why it is a bad idea by reading about the practice here at hearth.com or b) we were educated as to why it is a bad idea from our own personal experiences.

Assuming that you've been running your stove for the past month or so . . . I'm guessing that the smell you had may have partially been from the higher temp you reached with your stove pipe as the paint cured a bit more (hence the smoke detectors and smell) . . . however, since it was glowing red if it was me I would be at the very least replacing that bit of pipe. While at first I thought this may have just been an issue of too much draft and leaving it open too long, I now am wondering if there may have been some gunk built up in the elbow . . . which touched off when you brought up the temp in the stove pipe.

In either case, chock this up to a life lesson.

Lesson 1: Don't use the ash pan door to get a fire going.
Lesson 2: Use good wood in the woodstove. Save the marginal wood for later or for a fire pit.
Lesson 3: Watch the temps on your stove and stove pipe and adjust the air sooner rather than later.
Lesson 4: Keep a closer eye on your temps while heating and/or inspect/clean more often.

 

[tfdchief]

Yeah, what Jake said. The chimney pipe will smell every time you get it hotter than it has ever been. I have burned my new stove for a year now......haven't had any hot smell for some time, until the other day when I made the stupid mistake of thinking I could start a fire and answer an email from Dennis and then shut the air down. Wrong. when I got done answering the email I realized I could smell the tell tale smell.....remembered the stove and well, the stack probe temp. was at a new high 1200. Yep, it was stinking up the place. You would think after 40 years of burning wood I would have learned by now
Edit: Yes it was all Dennis' fault