What would you do in the event of a hopper fire?

[Wood Nugget]

Assuming everything is contained within the stove and hopper, I am wondering what is the best course of action in the event of a hopper fire? (besides calling 911). Should you put the stove into shutdown mode and see what happens? or just unplug it and run? Would you try to put it out yourself? If the hopper is full would you dig down until you get to the smoldering pellets? Do you dump water on it or use a ABC dry chem extinguisher? Not many people have CO2 extinguishers, but a couple blasts into the hopper and then close it up and also into the firebox would make a lot less of a mess than the water or dry chem. What is the best way to safely handle the situation without causing more damage?

 

[ChandlerR]

I thought about this. If you shut off the stove and let it do it's shut down thing, the pellets stop feeding but the combustion fan continues to run. If there is an airflow problem that caused the hopper or chute fire, I would think that you would not want the combustion fan running. I think what I would do is unplug the stove then carefully open the hopper door to watch for a flare up, then if there isn't one, I would use plain old water to put the fire out. I think you would have to scoop out as many pellets as you can because they would tend to absorb the water poured in. In either case, I don't think you're looking at a fire explosion. When you take away the airflow in a pellet stove, the pellets don't continue burning vigorously, they mostly smoulder. It will be smokey though!

By the way, I do have a fire extiguisher within 20 feet of the stove and I have both a hardwired smoke and a CO detector in the room. The hardwired detector will set off all the detectors in the house and it is impossible to sleep through

Chan

 

[Snowy Rivers]

If the fire is contained in the stove and I had someone else in the house to help I would do as follows.

Have the Helper (Kids, other half or ??) stand by to call 911 for FD

Toss open some windows to get air flow to keep breathable air in the house.
Unplug the stove and then take a sloppy wet bath towel and toss into the hopper and slam the lid shut.

Get a metal bucket or something that could hold pellets, even a plastic bucket and add some water.
Grab a coffee can or suitable item and then bail the pellets out of the hopper and toss into the bucket.

Bail the hopper out and get rid of the burning materials.

Dont toss in a pail of water with the stove plugged in. Electricity and water dont get along well.

Hopper fires are slow smoldering things.

The pellets need forced air to burn fast.

Try lighting some outside with a propane torch, they dont burn real well unless they have air blowing on them.

Generally a hopper fire is going to be a real PITA but not a raging inferno.

If for some reason the plan goes bad wrong, the helper can then be summoned to call for assistance.

Messing around with a fire if it is at all dicey as to whether you can deal with it, CALL for help

***911***


Blowing in a bunch of water is going to make a real mess. So if you can clean out the problem and get rid of the fire so much the better.

I have called the fire dept once when we had a duct work flash fire due to dust build up and someone turned on the electric heat coils in the HVAC system.

The boys with the BIG RED trucks were not needed but better safe than sorry.
The fire flashed quickly in the metal ducts and then was gone. Just lots of smoke for a few minutes. :ahhh:


Turned the fan in the HVAC system back on and opened the windows.

Not how I would recommend cleaning the duct work though. :bug:


Snowy

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

The procedure I would follow would be to exit the building, call 911, and empty 2 co2 extinguishers into my OAK and then plug it.

It shouldn't much matter if the combustion blower is running or not. The co2 should get to where it was needed and do the job.

Meanwhile the FD would be en route.

 

[R-Heating]

How would sucking the pellets out with a ash vacuum work?

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I am 20 minutes of hard haulin for the fire trucks to get here.

If the fire has not involved anything other than the stove or hopper, I am not going to sit around and allow the issue to grow into something bigger if I can help it.

NOW this said if the house is full of thick smoke, by all means life is far more precious than material things.

My stoves are all located close to windows that open a great deal so ventilating is not going to be an issue (stove vents are farther than 4 foot limits of openings)

Life is much more valuable than stoves or anything else.

A shop vac with some water in the bucket would work fine to suck out the hopper.

Just suck it out and go dump the stuff outside.

In my case, so minutes can make the difference of having a little smokey smell for a while of a burnt up house.

Unless life and limb are in jepardy Im going to take action and quick.

Snowy sits plumbing in a sprinkler over the pellet stoves. ;-)

SR

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

How would sucking the pellets out with a ash vacuum work?

Likely fine if the fire wasn't raging (the reason not to open the hooper is to prevent air flow through the hopper) and the vac didn't aid the air flow faster than emptying the hopper, and that it really could handle a good charge of fuel that would be getting a hell of a lot of air.

I can also see a hell of an exhaust situation coming out that vacuum.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

IF the vacuum has a fair amount of water in the bucket, the burning pellets will go out as they hit the water.

Gonna smell bad and smoke some but should be effective unless the fire is raging, then the plastic suck hose is gonna MELT :bug:


Snowy

 

[Snowy Rivers]

I think we all agree more or less that life and safety of people is far more important than the material things.

All a matter of how big the issue has grown to when you discover it as to what remediation to take.

Snowy

 

[coloradan]

I am a Firefighter, and the best advice I can give you is to buy a fire extinguisher and make sure you have a smoke alarm in the room where your stove is (if you don't already have one or another). The further away you are from a fire department, the more fire extinguishers you should have. Place the fire extinguishers in the same room as your stove (if possible), but not right next to them. That way if something were to happen and you were to be home, you have a very good chance of containing the fire to its point of origin. If you can't contain the fire, then that is when you should call 911 and seek safety immediately. But don't try to be a hero and risk getting injured if the fire is too intense. Houses can be replaced, people can't. I hate seeing or hearing about people who lose their homes or get injured because of stuff like this. Always be prepared! And if you have any questions about fire safety, call your local fire department - that's what they're there for. Sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I care deeply about the safety of people and the protection of their personal property.

 

[gottahavvitt]

Assuming everything is contained within the stove and hopper, I am wondering what is the best course of action in the event of a hopper fire? (besides calling 911). Should you put the stove into shutdown mode and see what happens? or just unplug it and run? Would you try to put it out yourself? If the hopper is full would you dig down until you get to the smoldering pellets? Do you dump water on it or use a ABC dry chem extinguisher? Not many people have CO2 extinguishers, but a couple blasts into the hopper and then close it up and also into the firebox would make a lot less of a mess than the water or dry chem. What is the best way to safely handle the situation without causing more damage?

I see a great four legged fire extinguisher in your avatar. Just let him drool into the hopper.
I love your St Bernard

 

[Snowy Rivers]

My Son inlaw is a fire fighter/EMT

Definately the best advice me thinks.

My personal feeling is that with pellet stoves especially, the likleyhood of a fire is very small BUTTTTTTTT anything can happen.

I have never seen a hopper fire or even close to one. Not that it could not happen but with the torturous path that a fire would have to travel to get into the hopper its just soooooo small of a possibility.

Keeping the stove clean and free of dust dirt and debris both in the fire chamber and the related piping/heat exchanger as well as the mechanical compartment is a MUST DO.

Its amazing at how much crap collects in the mechanical compartment of these things.

Dust from loading pellets/fuel and household dust cobwebs ect can all lead to, if left go, a situation that is ripe for a flash fire if something were to go wrong..

The manufactures test these things well and the testing labs that rate them give them a rigorous thrashing and put them though their paces. Unfortunately, the best designs can and do fail.

Most safety systems are not triple redundant. Pellet stoves have a high limit snap switch, usually in two places to shut the stove off in the event of overtemps or a runaway (Control board fails and the feed motor overfuels the stove.


The pressure switches will shut the stove off if the vent becomes plugged and with the negative pressure stoves, the pressure switch will shut the fuel off if the door is opened or gets accidentally opened (Dog chasing its tail and hits the door handle. I have seen this happen)

Good safe operating practices are the best prevention for the "Close encounters of the worst kind"

As was mentioned. Have fire extinguishers handy.

Remember, a pellet stove for the most part is a wood burning device and once the electrical plug is pulled, you can use water on the thing. If you can't get close enough to pull the plug. Trip the main breaker in the Service panel and then use the water on the beast.

For sure for sure, dont be a dead HERO.

As I mentioned before, I am 20 minutes away from a fire house so anything thats not major is going to get dealt with rather than allowing it to grow in size and scope.

One piece of advice, I never leave my stoves running on a high setting whil I am not here.

(Except the Quad of course)

Lower settings keep stove temps more reasonable and there is less chance of things going wrong.

Seems that the book on the Whitfields mentions that concept too.

All in all I dont think there is ONE canned answer to this question though. Each and every situation is dynamic and has to be dealt with accordingly.

One thing that is for sure is this, if you use a heating device that burns something, you need smoke detectors and CO detectors in the house.

Make sure they work too.

I removed a CO detector a while back, it was going off in the middle of the summer with nothing on, not even the AC.

These are electronic devices and can and do fail.

I checked the built in units here in the house and one did not squeek when the button was pushed.

I have simply added some new ones that are battery powered.

Be safe and think ahead and things will usually be fine.


Snowy

 

[Wood Nugget]

Some interesting replies so far. I know that every situation is different and would warrant a different response. I Like smokeys idea of attacking the fire from the outside without opening up the stove to introduce air to the hopper.
I hope that no one has to deal with a hopper fire, but at least now we have thought about what we might do and are a little more prepared if it did happen. Reading the different responses has been kind of a mock "fire drill" in my mind. Thanks for some great different perspectives.

 

[Wood Nugget]

I see a great four legged fire extinguisher in your avatar. Just let him drool into the hopper.
I love your St Bernard[/quote]

Thanks, She is 150lbs. of love.