The best way to shut an over-fire situation?

[Silenced38]

Just curious about what to do during an over-fire to cool down the stove? Just seeking advice. Always better to have a plan ahead of time. Than to battle thru the panic and indecision in the event of an emergency. I do have a fire extinguisher but consider it an absolute last resort!!

 

[bholler]

Opening the door will cool the flue pretty quickly. But you dont want to do that is it is a chimney fire so make sure you know what you are dealing with first

 

[electrathon]

Do you mean a chimney fire or a stove that you accidentally filled with gasoline and beeswax? Which by the way is a very bad idea.

 

[Silenced38]

A stove that has been loaded wrong and just takes off outta control. I try to keep the flue swept so there shouldn't be much to burn in there.

 

[Silenced38]

Do you mean a chimney fire or a stove that you accidentally filled with gasoline and beeswax? Which by the way is a very bad idea.

Why did you get rid of the Blaze King Princess? Thats the stove i hope to move up to eventually.

 

[bholler]

Well part of it depends on the stove mine i would just shut off all of the air. But many stoves dont shut down enough to stop it in that case opening the door will drop the temp pretty quick

 

[Offset]

Opening the door works very well on my stove. Only happened once but it cooled down in a big hurry.

Learned that trick from this Forum. Thank you.

 

[Wisneaky]

If you have a pipe damper shut it. If you have a damper on the stove shut it. I would never open a door to try and cool down a fire you'll just be feeding it more air. You ever watch a stove pipe thermometer when you open the door? It sky rockets because of the intense heat going up the chimney.

 

[bholler]

I would never open a door to try and cool down a fire you'll just be feeding it more air.

yes and that air is much cooler which quickly drops the temperature it works really

 

[Wisneaky]

yes and that air is much cooler which quickly drops the temperature it works really

Why not just shut the dampers? Feeding the fire air doesn't seem like a very smart idea? You do understand that a fire needs oxygen to burn right? So lets open the door and make the fire more intense.

 

[electrathon]

It was a great stove. My house is old and there was no liner in the brick chimney. The stove was an insert with a block-off plate deviding the stove in the middle. There was no connection between the stove and the chimney. It was this way for a long time. Always drafted well, lots of heat and east to light. A couple years ago I had a chimney fire that I had a hard time stopping, turned out the mortar was failing on the chimney about half way up and there was a hole allowing cool air into the chimney fanning the fire. I did a quick patch and a few months later replaced the stove with a new one and a stainless liner all the way through, plus chimney repairs. The new stove is awesome pretty, but the smaller blaze king princess put out more heat easier. The new stove does not emit visible smoke once hot, I really do like that part.

Why did you get rid of the Blaze King Princess? Thats the stove i hope to move up to eventually.

 

[bholler]

Why not just shut the dampers? Feeding the fire air doesn't seem like a very smart idea? You do understand that a fire needs oxygen to burn right? So lets open the door and make the fire more intense.

Obviously you would close the air inlets and dampers first but some stoves and setups that is not enough. I know it seems counter intuitive but by flooding the firebox and chimney with excess air it does cool it down quickly. You will get a small spike in temps which will very quickly pass and the temp will drop rapidly.

 

[electrathon]

Obviously you would close the air inlets and dampers first but some stoves and setups that is not enough. I know it seems counter intuitive but by flooding the firebox and chimney with excess air it does cool it down quickly. You will get a small spike in temps which will very quickly pass and the temp will drop rapidly.

Not saying this is wrong, but yes it is counter intuitive. It seems to me that the cooling down would take place in the chimney, right up till opening the overheated stove up rushed fire up the chimney and lit it on fire. Then it would get even hotter. The added air to the stove would rocket the intensity of the fire. Possibly this reaction is different on different model stoves.

 

[Phoenix Hatchling]

Why not just shut the dampers? Feeding the fire air doesn't seem like a very smart idea? You do understand that a fire needs oxygen to burn right? So lets open the door and make the fire more intense.

Seems counter intuitive, and takes a leap of faith, but works like a charm to bring the temp down quickly. And when they say open the door, that doesn't mean to crack it open.... Wide open to flood it with cool air.

 

[Woody harrelson]

Seems counter intuitive, and takes a leap of faith, but works like a charm to bring the temp down quickly. And when they say open the door, that doesn't mean to crack it open.... Wide open to flood it with cool air.

that makes it more believable for me. that's an important piece of information that I didn't see mentioned

 

[BrotherBart]

When I discovered the open the door wide thing a few years ago I had a stove over a thousand degrees and not looking like it was going to slow down lately. Everything on it shut down made no difference because the secondary air can't be shut off. The hotter it got the harder the chimney pulled and on from there.

Finally in desperation I did the only thing left. Swung the door wide open and that inrush of cold air from the room stopped that sucker in its tracks when the vacuum was broken in the firebox. The stove started cooling down and I was back in business ten minutes later.

The only thing to watch out for is that some embers may pop out when the cold air hits the wood.

 

[DougA]

First choice is to close any dampers you might have. Most people have none.
Second choice is to cover the air intakes in the stove. Find out where they are ahead of needing to do this. Alum foil, alum tape or whatever you have fast that might not burn. I've used a sheet of magnets - the kind you stick on your fridge and they do work.
Third choice is to open the door IF AND ONLY IF your wood supply in the stove is low. IF your stove is full, then go to plan 4. Yes, it raises the temps fast but lowers them within 5 seconds. However, if you have a stove full of fuel, you are playing with real danger.
Plan 4 - if you loaded too much kindling and it takes off and the stove is still full of wood, get a glass of water (or more), open the door and toss it on the wood and close the door FAST.

I've had an overfire a few times and I know these work but plan 4 is dangerous. It's less dangerous than a drastic overfire that threatens your home. Yes, moisture is not good for your chimney but what good is your chimney without a house?

EDIT: the glass of water is NOT designed to put out the fire, just to slow it down.

 

[BrotherBart]

All of the intakes, except for primary air, on his Madison are inside the pedestal I believe and therefore impossible to reach to plug. Kinda like my secondary intake on the 30-NC. So far back in the fireplace that it is cheek to cheek with a very hot stove to try to plug it.

But with stoves that you can get to the secondary intake, you are right. The number one way to get it back in control.

 

[saskwoodburner]

I've heard a green chunk of firewood can slow down a fire somewhat. I wonder about baking soda, salt, sand etc to snuff out a lively fire?

http://www.firescienceschools.org/blog/2010/10-things-you-can-use-to-put-out-fires/

 

[bholler]

get a glass of water (or more), open the door and toss it on the wood and close the door FAST.

Do not do this it is a very very bad idea. When that water vaporizes it can be extremely dangerous and do allot of damage to the stove the chimney and you. You may get away with it many times but the potential for danger is very high and it is not worth the risk. If closing the stove down does not work open the door. It works very well and very quickly. The only real danger is embers coming out of the stove like bart said.

 

[bholler]

All this being said if you think you are having a chimney fire do not open the door it will make it worse. The best thing to do in the event of a chimney fire is call the fire dept. A fire extinguisher emptied into the stove will work to but the fd should come out to check for hot spots

 

[Dix]

If a serious over fire opening the door can save your butt.

Having ridden a potential and / or real over fire out more than once, I'll tell ya that it's very scarey, you better think fast..

Don't, as a general rule, reload your stove unless it's below 300F or so . Best rule of thumb.

 

[begreen]

Most new stoves have a single air control on the primary air supply. Closing that air control usually does not close off the secondary or boost air supplies. These are often unrestricted. When there is a raging secondary burn that doesn't respond to closing down the air, opening up the stove door works. Been there and done that too.

I should add that this only happened to me with Castine as I was getting used to it and experimenting with wood and compressed fuel loads and once with the Alderlea. It hasn't happened for the last 7 yrs of burning with the T6 since, in full disclosure , I blocked the boost air (old style EBT).

 

[TheRambler]

Its not really counter intuitive IMO. With thr door closed the air feeds are literally blowing jets of air into the fire as designed. Its like blowing on a fire, it makes it intensify. This is by design. So if your stove is too hot/overfiring, by opening the door your taking away that blowing/jet air effect and basically turning into a regular fire if that makes sense. Its the draft you are trying to get under cintrol, so if you stop the air feed or reduce it you gain control. Blocking the air feed is best, next best would be opening the door wide open

 

[DougA]

Do not do this it is a very very bad idea. When that water vaporizes it can be extremely dangerous and do allot of damage to the stove the chimney and you. You may get away with it many times but the potential for danger is very high and it is not worth the risk. If closing the stove down does not work open the door. It works very well and very quickly.

When I had an overfire, opening the stove wide did not work as expected on one occasion. That was because I loaded when too hot and I loaded wood that I thought was a bit wet, to slow the fire down but actually was too dry. My bad and I learned a lot. After one full minute of a fully open door and rapidly rising dangerous flue temps, I threw water on as a last resort. If I had sand handy, I would have used that instead.

The wide open door did work well on another occasion.

Answer is to have multiple resources handy for such events. On mine, I will be adding a damper, the easiest solution.