http://www.sunjournal.com/news/main...ts-son-s-last-moments-trying-save-his/1280783
This article give a lot more details and makes it even more tragic.
This article give a lot more details and makes it even more tragic.
I was going to make a thread but I will ask this here if you guys don't mind-about a week ago there was a fire in town caused by a coal stove. He was short on some clearances but the article said the wood frame behind the wall is what started to burn and not the wall itself. So my question is how can you prevent that? Will the clearance be enough, in theory? I have cement board for brick facing and I might just put another inch of cement board to make a relief for where the stove will actually go. I took all the lathe out of the walls and put up fiberglass insulation. Do I have to worry about the beams catching fire? Are there precautions to take?Also if the chimney is going to be inside the house, should I put cement board on those walls that will be close to it? I realize manufacturers specs should be followed and they will be. Just trying to think ahead a bit.
An added note, the house is well over 100 years old and there is cooling air from the basement that will be in the walls. I did put some rigid foam and "great stuff" in to seal any air leaks before I put the fiberglass insulation in. Maybe I should have left that side of the wall go so the air could come in through the weather boards. What say you? Thanks
heat transfers through most any material to some extent. this is why a wall even if it is faced with a non-combustible surface is still a "combustible" wall. to afford better protection than just a facia applied directly to the surface. most wall protection involves either an insulation batting behind a metal or millboard surface or just the metal or milboard with an open airspace of an inch between it and the wall. in the open air spaced type the natural convection behind the protector causes air to rise as it is warmed thus drawing cooler air up behind it from near the floor. as this air circulates it draws the heat out to keep the wall cooler
Ok...that is definitely some information I can work with. While I already have the cement board on the wall, I can manipulate the "high relief" area of it a bit. I have fiberglass batting in the wall so I can bring the relief out and sandwich a millboard or metal between two other cement boards while leaving a few inches between it and the wall. Hmm...I have some old asbestos shingles on the side that I have to get rid of... (wheels are turning)
Thanks! This makes me feel better as I never even thought about the inside of the wall burning...
Maybe you were kidding, but I'd sure hate to see you put asbestos shingles in there. Even though they aren't friable, they can get scratched, scuffed and broken and release fibers.I was going to make a thread but I will ask this here if you guys don't mind-about a week ago there was a fire in town caused by a coal stove. He was short on some clearances but the article said the wood frame behind the wall is what started to burn and not the wall itself. So my question is how can you prevent that? Will the clearance be enough, in theory? I have cement board for brick facing and I might just put another inch of cement board to make a relief for where the stove will actually go. I took all the lathe out of the walls and put up fiberglass insulation. Do I have to worry about the beams catching fire? Are there precautions to take?Also if the chimney is going to be inside the house, should I put cement board on those walls that will be close to it? I realize manufacturers specs should be followed and they will be. Just trying to think ahead a bit.
An added note, the house is well over 100 years old and there is cooling air from the basement that will be in the walls. I did put some rigid foam and "great stuff" in to seal any air leaks before I put the fiberglass insulation in. Maybe I should have left that side of the wall go so the air could come in through the weather boards. What say you? Thanks
Maybe you were kidding, but I'd sure hate to see you put asbestos shingles in there. Even though they aren't friable, they can get scratched, scuffed and broken and release fibers.
That firefighter you mentioned that died while trying to save those kids was the son of my mother's neighbor - He of course did not grow up in Unity but on the South Shore of Boston. His poor mother still grieves.Father and three kids die in a fire.
When this story broke a day or so ago I had a gut feeling that the cause would somehow be tied into the family's use of the woodstove . . . sad to say today they released the cause: cardboard boxes left too close to the stove.
Add to this that some lighter fluid was also nearby and may have contributed to the spread and neighbors and firefighters said they did not hear any smoke detectors sounding . . .
I hated calls like this . . . brought back some pretty raw emotions from a fire I went to many years ago when three kids died in a fire and a fellow firefighter died when he went into cardiac arrest. I know exactly what those Orrington Firefighters are going through right now . . . hell, I think most any firefighter who has been on the job long enough knows what they're thinking and feeling.
And so here's my rant . . . if you're using flammable liquids to start your fires . . . please stop. There are safer alternatives.
Clearances . . . don't try to fudge things on the install just because you want more room . . . and don't forget that clearances aren't just for the walls and ceilings, but for stuff in the room . . . including wood, cardboard boxes, kindling, etc. . . . another reason to not pile wood too close (or even on top of the stove as I have seen in the past.)
Smoke detectors . . . get 'em, make sure they work . . . I am more than happy to answer any question you might have about these potential life saving devices and will probably bore you to death with what I know . . . but these things work . . . but only if they're present and only if they work.
---
http://bangordailynews.com/2012/11/...e-to-wood-stove-caused-deadly-orrington-fire/
Could just be embers flying out the door not detected until too late.I do practice safe burning and do keep combustible a safe distance from my stove. However everytime I read about a house resulting from combustibles too close to a stove I wonder if there is a little more to it. I have tested the theory by lying things like paper towels, saw dust, cardboard ect. on a 700 degree stove top. I have never been seen any of it ignite.My neighbor has a stove in his shop. The stove is typically caked with dust, sawdust, and whatever is generated in the shop. Non of that has ever ignite either.
I do practice safe burning and do keep combustible a safe distance from my stove. However everytime I read about a house resulting from combustibles too close to a stove I wonder if there is a little more to it. I have tested the theory by lying things like paper towels, saw dust, cardboard ect. on a 700 degree stove top. I have never been seen any of it ignite.My neighbor has a stove in his shop. The stove is typically caked with dust, sawdust, and whatever is generated in the shop. Non of that has ever ignite either.
Maybe you were kidding, but I'd sure hate to see you put asbestos shingles in there. Even though they aren't friable, they can get scratched, scuffed and broken and release fibers.
heat transfers through most any material to some extent. this is why a wall even if it is faced with a non-combustible surface is still a "combustible" wall. to afford better protection than just a facia applied directly to the surface. most wall protection involves either an insulation batting behind a metal or millboard surface or just the metal or milboard with an open airspace of an inch between it and the wall. in the open air spaced type the natural convection behind the protector causes air to rise as it is warmed thus drawing cooler air up behind it from near the floor. as this air circulates it draws the heat out to keep the wall cooler
I do practice safe burning and do keep combustible a safe distance from my stove. However everytime I read about a house resulting from combustibles too close to a stove I wonder if there is a little more to it. I have tested the theory by lying things like paper towels, saw dust, cardboard ect. on a 700 degree stove top. I have never been seen any of it ignite.My neighbor has a stove in his shop. The stove is typically caked with dust, sawdust, and whatever is generated in the shop. Non of that has ever ignite either.
A house burned (not to the ground) near me a few yrs back when the roof trusses caught fire from the chimney. The guy had heated with a stove for 20+yrs. Turned out the chimney was laid up around the trusses. Eventually enough mortor deteriated and probably cracked tiles, to expose the wood.its a cumulitive thing in most cases, closer than tolerable clearances transfer heat into wall studs. especially around poorly built chimneys where the heat radiates through the brick or epecially through cracked mortar joints and tiles (which is why periodic inspections of masonary flues are important) literally "bake" the wood over time this wood becomes more succeptible to combustion. i remember on a job years ago we were replacing an old stove and chimney with a class a system the old chimney was being torn down as it had been inspected and found unusable. when the old flue was torn down there were exposed studs behind it and they looked like someone had taken a torch and brought them just short of actually burning, literally they were almost charred.
it happens in walls behind stoves too sometimes especially when the stove is too close and or the wall was not adequately protected.
Believe it or not, there is at least one study on the ignition point of wood dust. It's 320°C for a layer of oak dust. 430 C for a cloud. Sounds like a fun job.My old stove is now at the back corner of the yard for outdoor burning enjoyment. Crap that blows on it and twigs and stuff that fall on it catch fire all of the time. It charred some wood I had stacked too close to the side of it a couple of years ago. Just because that crap on your stove hasn't burned the joint down yet doesn't mean it can't.
This was a family who did not have much. they were trying to purchase a foreclosed home and were renting it until their financing came through. The furnace did not work, and this was all they had to heat the two story home. My thought is this was a man who had no experience with wood stoves, was trying to do the best for his family and did not think. Granted, we haven't all done anything fatal, or we wouldn't be here, but haven't we all done something really stupid because we JUST DIDN"T THINK ABOUT IT???I don't think adhering to clearances was their problem. I think it was a lifetime of lacking common sense that finally caught up to them.
This was a family who did not have much. they were trying to purchase a foreclosed home and were renting it until their financing came through. The furnace did not work, and this was all they had to heat the two story home. My thought is this was a man who had no experience with wood stoves, was trying to do the best for his family and did not think. Granted, we haven't all done anything fatal, or we wouldn't be here, but haven't we all done something really stupid because we JUST DIDN"T THINK ABOUT IT???
unfortunately, this wasn't the case here. the family of five was trying to leave an old two-bedroom mobile home with a leaky roof and purchase a two story foreclosed home with a furnace that didn't work. Their financing to purchase the home was to include enough funds to repair the furnace. The only source of working heat in the home was the wood stove. They were what the news article called 'House Sitting' with a monthly rent paid, until the financing came through.What he said.
Thinking you are saving money to stay warm ain't worth dying for.
As Pen points out, being prepared matters.
My Oslo sits on a 4" thick stone slab that exceeds Jotuls clearance minimums on all four sides. The back wall is the original masonry fireplace wall. I am kicking myself now, that during my remodel I didn't think to install a 5/8" type X gypsum ceiling and wall assemblies on the rest of the room, as it would have only added nominal cost.
At the entry to the "library" where our stove is, I have wall mounted a mag light and a 4A-60 BC rated dry chem extinguisher, and directly adjacent have a Chimfex in it's original packaging (where the instructions are printed).
I've installed 6 hardwired CO/smoke detectors throughout the house and a separate CO/gas detector in the laundry/furnace room. There are also 4 smaller extinguishers throughout the house including a BC only rated kitchen extinguisher.
I have no delusions that the home is safe, but I have taken what measures I feel are prudent.
My next tasks are likely to be installing rate of rise, high temp detectors in the attic and garage, and possibly adding a purple K extinguisher somewhere.
What else should be done Jake?
We use essential cookies to make this site work, and optional cookies to enhance your experience.