Chimney fire instructions

[revdocjim]

I've been following the "overfire thread" with great interest and I was curious to know more about what to do in case of a chimney fire. My son had a small one last winter with an old open stove (screen doors on the front) and single chimney except for the part going thru the wall. He ran outside and the entire chimney was glowing red with lots of sparks shooting out the top. I was on the phone with him as it was happening and told him to get the fire extinguisher ready and just watch the siding on the house. Fortunately it burned itself out in a few minutes.

Afterwards I wondered if I should have told him to remove the cap at the bottom of the chimney outside. The stove had a rear flue that went thru the wall and then just one T joint with and cap on the bottom and then straight up. Of course it was hot and would have required heavy gloves. Would that have helped or hurt?

The old stove and single walled chimney have been replaced with an F500 and double walled, insulated chimney pipe but the question still remains. Would flooding a chimney with air help or hurt in the case of a chimney fire?

 

[pen]

With the new setup, if things are run as they are meant to be, and maintained with regular cleanings, this conversation will not be an issue.

As far as adding more air to a chimney fire, no, that's not going to help. 911 at first notice, then throw a product in such as http://www.amazon.com/Rutland-3412-...8&qid=1444440267&sr=8-1&keywords=chimney+fire and close things up as per directions.

In all, chimney fires happen due to poor burning practices and/or poor chimney setups. Fixings these issues is paramount.

pen

 

[begreen]

Flooding a chimney fire with air will not help and could make things even worse.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah with a chimney fire you want to deprive it of oxygen. Not give it more. Keeping a product like pen suggests around is the answer. Had them for years and have never needed to use one. In fact I bought a case of them to sell to members at cost but everyone I sent one found a way to piss me off so I quit doing it and gave the rest to the local fire company. They fed me lunch.

 

[pen]

Yeah with a chimney fire you want to deprive it of oxygen. Not give it more. Keeping a product like pen suggests around is the answer. Had them for years and have never needed to use one. In fact I bought a case of them to sell to members at cost but everyone I sent one found a way to piss me off so I quit doing it and gave the rest to the local fire company. They fed me lunch.

Hey now,,,,, I bought one off ya! Not saying I haven't pissed ya off, but.....

 

[BrotherBart]

OK, you and Gamma and Kathleen. I gave them to them. You would not believe the hoops you jump through at the Post Office to mail one of those things. They have their own class of flammables in the Postal regs. Only found one clerk that had a clue that it was legal to mail them if properly labelled . Whole bunch of eBay sellers breaking the law with them.

You could never piss me off my friend. Didn't even remember that you had one.

 

[bholler]

In all, chimney fires happen due to poor burning practices and/or poor chimney setups. Fixings these issues is paramount.

I am sorry but you can have a fire even with a perfect setup. It is unlikely yes but it can still happen.

I've been following the "overfire thread" with great interest and I was curious to know more about what to do in case of a chimney fire.

Call the fire dept. Then close the stove down and leave the house

 

[pen]

I am sorry but you can have a fire even with a perfect setup. It is unlikely yes but it can still happen.

No reason to be sorry a bit......Accidents happen with any setup. The point is, if done right, the risks are minimized.

 

[begreen]

As you noted, poor burning practices can lead toward a chimney fire, even in a perfect setup. Burn dry wood.

 

[BrotherBart]

Poor practices and maintenance can wreck an anvil. I think the OP asked about what to do when you wreck the anvil.

And that has pretty much been covered.

Call the big red truck.

Shut off all of of the intake air that you can.

If you have one, light and throw the road flare looking thing into the stove and close the door.

Go with the family and watch from the yard while the pros in the big yellow boots do their thing.

Don't b_itch the next time you pay your property taxes for those guys.

 

[revdocjim]

OK. Looks like there is a consensus of wisdom here about trying to flood the chimney with air. Thanks for the solid advice. I hope I never need it!

As for standing in the yard and watching, where our cabin is located a fire truck would never get there in time. And during the winter there is about 2-3 meters of snow on the ground. The cabin is almost 100 meters from the road with walk in access only, and that is assuming the road is plowed, which it often isn't in the winter. A friend of mine with a cabin in the same location had a much worse chimney fire a couple years ago... due to foolish burning practices and a poor installation. But he and his brother reacted quickly, got up on the roof with a couple buckets of water and extinguished the flames that had already started to spread to his roof. I'm not saying that was the smartest thing to do, but there are many locations where professional fire departments only minutes away simply don't exist. I guess the little extinguisher things mentioned above might be a really good idea for such locations.

 

[electrathon]

I know many people have said no water, but I have knocked out a number of chimney fires over the years with wet newspaper. Wad it up, wet it quickly in the bathtub, open the stove door and toss in the wet paper, close the door. The steam rises into the chimney and knocks out the flame.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Flooding a chimney fire with air will not help and could make things even worse.

I disagree.


It will make it worse.


Fire needs three things to keep itself happy and growing: fuel, oxygen, and heat.

Fighting a fire is done by removing one or more of those things, not adding more.


Firefighters ventilate a building to control smoke and gain access, not to fight the fire.

BTW, standing by with a fire extinguisher watching the siding is an exercise in futility. By the time you see the siding burning on the outside it's waaaay too big for any fire extinguisher. Since this is an open stove, that fire extinguisher might do some good being discharged into the stove itself, removing a source of heat, and possibly carrying the extinguisher agent up the chimney where it can attack the actual fire. A big CO2 extinguisher would be my choice for an open stove.

 

[bholler]

Yes dumping a fire extinguisher into the stove will work in many situations

 

[kennyp2339]

As a firefighter and I'm only telling people this that my not have close FD access, what we do for chimney fires is (make sure the stove is shut down, go up on the roof, (safety is paramount, practice now) remove the chimney cap, we drop a chain rig down the pipe, (looks like a mop head of chains, connected to a long chain, move it up and down, try not to panic, slow is the best method (reduces damage) this will knock all the flaming crusty pieces down the flue, either it will end up in the clean out or back in the stove. We then clean out the fire box using a large metal tub *on top of a thick *canvas tarp. This is the best practice for a chimney fire as there is a reduced damage to the chimney. If you do this you still need your setup inspected to make sure you didn't compromise anything.
I say this for the people that are out in the woods, that if the FD is called it will take 20 - 30 min to show up, there are risks with this, It will be very smoky, you do not want to breath that crap, there will be embers and flames coming out of the cap, wear heavy duty gloves, a heavy duty jacket (like a carhart, not plastic / nylon ski jacket) Still call the FD, they will check with a camera for any hot spots, they will also be "on the road" incase that it turns into more than a chimney fire.
The other option is to spray a dry chemical extinguisher either up the stove (if you have a newer baffle type it will be harder) or up the clean out, this can be messy but I rather have messy and a place to stay then nothing at all. *still call the FD.
*water is the last resort, what will crack masonry instantly, water will crack the inside of your stove instantly, use water as a last resort, but be prepared to write things off as a loss,
Either way the best way to fight a chimney fire is prevention, clean your flues, I do mine 3 times a burning season, I probabaly only need to clean it once a year, but I rather have the piece of mind.

 

[Stinkpickle]

Yes, starving the chimney of oxygen is the way to go. I caught one early in an open fireplace and was able to quickly shut the flue (using my shirt as a glove). I opened the doors and windows and extinguished the fire. The house got a little smoky, but the chimney had cooled down by the time the fire truck arrived. Of course, it wasn't quick enough to not warp the liner, but nothing else was harmed, fortunately. The fire dept's evac fans cleared the smoke out of the house quickly, too. It smelled like a wood oven pizza place for a few weeks.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Let's say the worst happens and even though it shouldn't it does and I have a chimney fire. My chimney is just class a going thru a cathedral ceiling. If I took my hose and shot water at the top of it that would be bad? Bad as in worse than letting it burn and waiting for the FD? That's going to be a long time standing there doing nothing while waiting for my local volunteer FD to show up.

 

[Stinkpickle]

Let's say the worst happens and even though it shouldn't it does and I have a chimney fire. My chimney is just class a going thru a cathedral ceiling. If I took my hose and shot water at the top of it that would be bad? Bad as in worse than letting it burn and waiting for the FD? That's going to be a long time standing there doing nothing while waiting for my local volunteer FD to show up.

Yeah, i might spray the roof around the chimney but probably not the chimney itself.

 

[bholler]

If I took my hose and shot water at the top of it that would be bad?

You dont want water to go down that chimney it will expand very rapidly and can cause lots of problems

 

[Babaganoosh]

So ideally you might want to spray the outside of the chimney and the roof surrounding it or just the roof surrounding it?

 

[bholler]

So ideally you might want to spray the outside of the chimney and the roof surrounding it or just the roof surrounding it?

I would not spray anything at all

 

[revdocjim]

More good info. Thanks! In retrospect the first thing I should have told my son to do is close the damper on the back of the old stove. Now I'll bare all and tell you how it got started. My son was having trouble getting the fire started (wet wood, cold house etc.) so he made the foolish move of dumping a little bit of kerosene on the wood that was in the stove. Fortunately he had very little wood in the stove at the time but the kerosene ignited not only the wood but the crud that was in chimney. Of course I told him to never do that again and he was significantly scared by the experience so I think he learned his lesson. And of course, as mentioned earlier, that stove has been replaced with a much better stove/chimney and he is burning dry wood now.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

OK, so we all know heat rises. Water works best as steam. Steam follows heat. If the chimney has even the smallest opening water IN the stove will work best as the steam will rise through the entire chimney. That said it might warp the class A, crack tile, etcc.... Though every situation will be slightly different, best advice is to open stove door, spray dry chemical extinguisher a little, and close door. Wait a few moments and repeat until fire is out. The dry chemical will be EVERYWHERE and is a PITA to clean but I would rather spend days vacuuming than replacing my stove though. After extinguishment I would certainly use my brush and clean the chimney.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

Let's say the worst happens and even though it shouldn't it does and I have a chimney fire. My chimney is just class a going thru a cathedral ceiling. If I took my hose and shot water at the top of it that would be bad? Bad as in worse than letting it burn and waiting for the FD? That's going to be a long time standing there doing nothing while waiting for my local volunteer FD to show up.

BAD idea. Heat rises. DO NOT add water to the top of chimney. Lowest connection is best. Water converts to steam at 212 F and rises with the rest of the heat in chimney. U will likely scald yourself in this manner.

 

[Babaganoosh]

How would I scald myself standing 30 feet away outside?

Not going to do this but what am I missing?