What happens when you don't have your chimney inspected

I am a volunteer fireman. This fire was a few years ago. Cause of the fire was an improperly installed wood stove. They shoved the stove pipe into the masonry chimney and just hoped for the best.

Could you tell how the fire started? Did it appear to begin inside the wall adjacent to the chimney?

Great pics, but I feel for the homeowner(s).

BTW: I think if you limit your photo size to 600 pixels, things display without having to scroll on average sized monitors, like mine. 600 pixels is the limit for uploading direct to this site IIRC, but posting links from photobucket or elsewhere allows that to effectively be overridden.

Looks like the wall thimble was possibly improperly constructed and the stone was set on plywood. Scary stuff.

I fixed the pic sizing on photobucket....sorry about that


Anyways from the homeowner statement he said he could see a orange glow next to where the stove pipe entered the chimney. That's when he called 911.

When we got there the fire was in the attic already, fire investigator stated the fire burned in the wall for awhile before the home owner called.


As far as construction goes, everything about it was wrong, single wall stove pipe just rammed into the masonry chimney, the stone you do see was just attached to the wall with hardboard