Animal? Fire or no fire?

[Kebmchugh]

Hi! My cleaning lady told me that on Monday she heard scratching in the chimney - and today (Friday) I heard the same - nothing in between though frantic when it is audible.

We have a quadrafire insert so u don't think it can get into the house but if I don't hear the animal I am not sure if it is dangerous to start a fire. I did slam the door a few times to see if anything was there but didn't hear any response.

Ideas?

 

[Nick Mystic]

Do you have a screen on the top at your rain cap? If not, any number of critters might have found their way into your flue/stove. Your question about whether it is safe to start a fire with an animal of some sort trapped in your flue or stove implies you are concerned about whether or not the fire will burn properly while the critter gets burned to death. Sounds like bad karma to me. I'm a person who catches spiders and then frees them outdoors when one shows up in the house, so I certainly wouldn't advocate starting a fire until you sort out what might be trapped in your flue/stove. Why not go up on the roof with a good flashlight and have a look. If it's a bird, bat, or squirrel I would free it before I burned in the stove. If you don't care about the life of the animal, then consider how a clog in your system might mess up your stove/flue. It doesn't take much of a blockage to prevent a proper draft from being established. Good Luck sorting things out.

 

[edyit]

shine a light either up or down the chimney to make sure there is nothing in there

 

[Kebmchugh]

Since there was no noise even with coaxing (noise/banging) I believed that there was no animal. However, I wasn't willing to burn down my house on that assumption!

I believe in being nice to living things (though I think spiders are fair game) and even if I didn't believe in karma cooking an animal in my chimney seems like a bad idea.

Thank you for the advice - I can't see up because of the insert but I will see if my husband will brave a roof climb.

No chimney cap - it is on the list.

Thank you!


QUOTE="Nick Mystic, post: 2007576, member: 26794"]Do you have a screen on the top at your rain cap? If not, any number of critters might have found their way into your flue/stove. Your question about whether it is safe to start a fire with an animal of some sort trapped in your flue or stove implies you are concerned about whether or not the fire will burn properly while the critter gets burned to death. Sounds like bad karma to me. I'm a person who catches spiders and then frees them outdoors when one shows up in the house, so I certainly wouldn't advocate starting a fire until you sort out what might be trapped in your flue/stove. Why not go up on the roof with a good flashlight and have a look. If it's a bird, bat, or squirrel I would free it before I burned in the stove. If you don't care about the life of the animal, then consider how a clog in your system might mess up your stove/flue. It doesn't take much of a blockage to prevent a proper draft from being established. Good Luck sorting things out.[/QUOTE]

 

[bholler]

No chimney cap - it is on the list.

You have a liner with no cap at all?

 

[jb6l6gc]

Light it up

 

[Simonkenton]

nickmystic you are a man after my own heart. My girlfriend has given up on asking me to kill spiders because I always catch 'em and put them outside.
I can't stand to kill any of God's creatures.
When I find a copperhead under the lid of the propane tank, I get out my snake tongs and catch him, drive him way out in the country and turn him loose.
If the critter tries to eat my house, like carpenter bees, they get the death penalty.
I am a reformed deer hunter, I guess I killed so many deer in my misspent youth and now am trying to make up for it.




My "catch and release" program for North Carolina copperheads.

 

[Highbeam]

It's a liner to an insert, there's no animal in the chimney. He's either dead and inside your stove on top of the baffle or there is a critter behind your surround. Can you pull out your baffle to check? I'd want to retrieve the carcass from there or behind the surround.

 

[TheAardvark]

nickmystic you are a man after my own heart. My girlfriend has given up on asking me to kill spiders because I always catch 'em and put them outside.
I can't stand to kill any of God's creatures.
When I find a copperhead under the lid of the propane tank, I get out my snake tongs and catch him, drive him way out in the country and turn him loose.
If the critter tries to eat my house, like carpenter bees, they get the death penalty.
I am a reformed deer hunter, I guess I killed so many deer in my misspent youth and now am trying to make up for it.


View attachment 167523

My "catch and release" program for North Carolina copperheads.

Nothing wrong with killing deer as long as you eat them and put it to good use. 1 good size deer provides many enjoyable and healthy meals for my family.

 

[kennyp2339]

I keep having flashbacks of my 1st new wood stove, I connected everything, threw in crumpled news paper, left the door open went to find some kindling, when I came back into the room 20min later my cat (kitten at the time) was fast asleep on the crumpled news paper in the stove.

 

[Woody Stover]

My "catch and release" program for North Carolina copperheads.

That's a big'un. I caught a pregnant female that was warming up on the compost heap; Scooped her up with a pitching wedge, dropped her in a 5-gal. bucket. I called the herpetologist at the zoo, who told me he didn't believe it was a copperhead. I took the snake to him...he said "Hey, that's a copperhead."

 

[Simonkenton]

Yes, aardvark there is nothing wrong with deer hunting. I was living in central Georgia and the limit was 12. Believe me when I say I have killed over 100 whitetails. I ate every one of them. Most of them I processed myself, I have a meat grinder, made some great sausage and burger.

What ruined me was, several years ago a guy on another forum took in a little fawn whose mother had been run over and killed. Illegal here in the southeast but legal in Texas.
He had the little guy sleeping on a doggie bunk next to his wood stove, the little thing was just like a pet dog.
Dennis posted many many stories about his wild pet.
At 6 months age, the little buck got into a fight with a big buck and was killed. That story just broke my heart and I had to call off deer hunting.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

1 good size deer provides many enjoyable and healthy meals for my family.

And one less to wreck a radiator, or whole car, on the highway.