Confused about a chimney fire - Hampton HI300

[Leaky Waders]

Hey gang, long time reader but infrequent poster. Got a call from the wife this morning, lots of smoke in the front yard. She called the Fire Department who extinguished the fire in my Hampton HI300, and then swept my chimney, apparently they pulled about half a bucket of creosote out of the chimney. A minor chimney fire, catastrophe avoided, thank goodness. But this situation has left me scratching my head.

This is the start of my fourth year burning. I am an obsessive burner, always load up and turn down the fire in stages. Every time I go outside, I look up at my chimney, and with the exception of reloads, I never see ANY smoke coming out of the chimney. And that is not an exaggeration. NEVER any smoke, except on reloads. I get great overnight burns, good heat, and keep the blower on low (except on reloads, when I turn the blower off).

In August 2013 (so just a few months ago) I had a chimney sweep come out to the house, and was astonished to hear him say, and I quote, "You don't need a sweep, chimney has no build-up, keep doing what you've been doing." Man, what a great thing for a woodstove fanatic like myself to hear!

Well, four months later (and only a month of burning later, since we didn't fire up until November), this happens. I called the sweep company, and the guy said it might be the wood. But it is the same wood I was burning last year (i have not bought wood in two seasons). So how can wood that I burned all last season and that lead to a clean chimney bill of health ("Keep doing what you've been doing.") lead to a chimney fire in a month of burning this season? Doesn't make any sense to me, and I am thoroughly confused, and somewhat skittish about burning again.

I have a CSIA certified sweep coming to do a full inspection this weekend. Won't burn again until they give me the green light. But I wonder if anyone here can shed some light on this. Only other clues I would offer is that the automatic blower has been acting weird on the Hampton, and reloads hadn't been lighting up like they should have been (and normally do) very recently.

Any thoughts/theories/advice?

Thanks!

 

[PLAYS WITH FIRE]

There have been a story or two about a sweep telling a story or two. Meaning, and not say this is the case, that the sweep maybe did not do his job properly and did not sweep?

 

[velvetfoot]

Did you actually see the 'creosote' they pulled out? I have wild ass theory: bird's nest.

PS: I'm loving my HI300, and I sweep it out myself, from below.

 

[Leaky Waders]

My wife saw the 'creosote' but I cannot confirm that it wasn't just ash from the stove, or that it actually was creosote at all. And the chimney sweep back in August did not sweep, he did not see the need. He took $50 for the trip and the inspection, but said there was no need to sweep the chimney. I am having a CSIA certified sweep come out Saturday for a complete chimney and stove inspection. I don't know what to think about all of this. Perhaps a blockage of some sort, and that is why restarts have been harder?

I love the Hampton, too, although hopefully I will not be too skittish to return to burning.

 

[velvetfoot]

You have a liner, right?

 

[Leaky Waders]

Yessir.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well it is obvious that you can't be burning the same wood that you burned last year but you can be burning wood from the same pile. This begs the question of what kind of wood is it. Were there more than one type of wood? Where and how was the wood stacked? Was it covered (top only)?

But thinking beyond the wood it indeed could be a blockage in the chimney and that could be a bird nest or even a hornet nest. Also it is not unheard of for a chimney to become blocked with creosote in a months worth of burning.

I'd start with the chimney making sure there is no blockage and the same with the stove. At the same time you could be thinking about the fuel.

Good luck.

 

[Leaky Waders]

Thanks for your thoughts. When I got home, and started to think about things, it dawned on me that this might not have been a chimney fire after all. My wife noticed smoke in the front yard, and looked up to see that smoke was coming out of the chimney at an abnormal clip. It was right after she had reloaded the stove, the one time that the stove/chimney actually does smoke. Making the right decision, she came in and closed the damper down...which of course would have led to...smoke. The fire department shows up (with eight engines from four different companies) and proceeds to carry the fire wood from the stove into the yard, and climbs up in a ladder truck to the top of the chimney, where they proceed to sweep the chimney. There is no sign that they ever put anything down the chimney to put out a fire. My neighbor, a firefighter himself, said that the smoke was white the entire time, and when he came in my house, the wall above the stove was not hot. So I think the smoke might have been from the reload.

Either way, wife made the right decision...shut the damper and the call fire department.

Still have a CSIA certified sweep coming out for a full inspection on saturday before I resume burning.

 

[southbalto]

Nice Rock!!

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Smoke coming out of the chimney is certainly nothing to call the fire department about, but a half bucket of creosote would make me want to check the chimney a little more often. How big a bucket are we talking about?
Is there any reason you can't check and sweep your own chimney? The cost of one regular cleaning is usually enough to buy your own tools. The more familiar you and your family get with your stove, the less often you'll have the fire department over at your house.

Quick! somebody call the fire department.

 

[Beer Belly]

Thanks for your thoughts. When I got home, and started to think about things, it dawned on me that this might not have been a chimney fire after all. My wife noticed smoke in the front yard, and looked up to see that smoke was coming out of the chimney at an abnormal clip. It was right after she had reloaded the stove, the one time that the stove/chimney actually does smoke. Making the right decision, she came in and closed the damper down...which of course would have led to...smoke. The fire department shows up (with eight engines from four different companies) and proceeds to carry the fire wood from the stove into the yard, and climbs up in a ladder truck to the top of the chimney, where they proceed to sweep the chimney. There is no sign that they ever put anything down the chimney to put out a fire. My neighbor, a firefighter himself, said that the smoke was white the entire time, and when he came in my house, the wall above the stove was not hot. So I think the smoke might have been from the reload.

Either way, wife made the right decision...shut the damper and the call fire department.

Still have a CSIA certified sweep coming out for a full inspection on saturday before I resume burning.

I was thinking the same thing.....just smoke from a reload.....I would think if there were a Chimney Fire, there'd be flames out of the Chimney, and from what I've heard, some noticeable rumbling from the stove area.....but she did good, play it safe, and call FD

 

[oldspark]

Chimneys smoke plain and simple, calling the fire dept for a little smoke is like calling the septic tank truck for a dirty diaper.
I saw a chimney fire once driving down the road and the amount of smoke was impressive plus the smoke was blacker then soot.

 

[Leaky Waders]

Funny you mention diapers, oldspark, because we have eleven week old twins in the house. Which might have provided some level of inspiration for my wife to call the fire department. Can't fool around with this kind of thing.

I am not sure if the 'creosote' they removed was from the chimney, or if it was just the ash they scooped out of the bottom of the stove. But as I said, we had a chimney sweep come out in August and said that we didn't need a sweep, and to keep doing what we were doing. Needless to say, I have a CSIA-certified sweep coming out for a full inspection on Saturday, and I assume I will fire back up once they give me the green light.

I might also start regular use of a Creosote Sweeping Log and do my own chimney sweeping, from the bottom, if that is easy enough to do with the Hampton HI300.

 

[oldspark]

Funny you mention diapers, oldspark, because we have eleven week old twins in the house. Which might have provided some level of inspiration for my wife to call the fire department. Can't fool around with this kind of thing

For sure and congrats on the twins, I fully understand your concern, kids are precious.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Chimneys smoke plain and simple, calling the fire dept for a little smoke is like calling the septic tank truck for a dirty diaper.

Actually if you start flushing many dirty diapers you WILL be needing to call the septic tank truck.


The nice thing about learning to clean your own chimney is peace of mind. Most people won't call the chimney sweep every month, but there's no reason why you can't run a brush through your chimney every month, if you have the tools. It will help YOU become more familiar with your own stove and how it is burning, and take the guess work out of it.

 

[logger]

Thats why I clean my own pipe. We have a pretty peaked roof on our cabin so I figured the first sweep Id have done professionally. This was quite some time ago. The guy arrived, took a look at my roof, then told me he had a newborn at home and the roof was to much for him to go up. My thoughts on that, what a p#ssy! I borrowed my old mans pipe cleaner and did the job myself. Been doing it myself since then and at least now I know its done properly and whats going on in there.

 

[USMC80]

Funny you mention diapers, oldspark, because we have eleven week old twins in the house. Which might have provided some level of inspiration for my wife to call the fire department. Can't fool around with this kind of thing.

I am not sure if the 'creosote' they removed was from the chimney, or if it was just the ash they scooped out of the bottom of the stove. But as I said, we had a chimney sweep come out in August and said that we didn't need a sweep, and to keep doing what we were doing. Needless to say, I have a CSIA-certified sweep coming out for a full inspection on Saturday, and I assume I will fire back up once they give me the green light.

I might also start regular use of a Creosote Sweeping Log and do my own chimney sweeping, from the bottom, if that is easy enough to do with the Hampton HI300.

let me know if you have any luck removing burn tubes to clean bottom up. I have not been able to. Maybe I'm just being to easy on them cause im scared of damaging them

 

[velvetfoot]

Vise grip on tube then hammer on vise grip. I only removed one tube. Didn't hammer it hard enough back in and it dropped down when burning-had to hammer it back in. I wonder if I could squeeze brush around tubes next time. I liked the clips on my Quad better.

 

[Leaky Waders]

Wanted to update this thread, because everyone was so helpful. We had the good folks at Atlantic Chimney out of Easton come out and take a look. Joey's opinion was that the smoke was from the reload, and that the barometric pressure was keeping the smoke close to the ground, which is what freaked my wife out. He also ran a video camera down the chimney, which we plugged via USB into my computer, and he took me on a tour of my chimney. Simply put, after three full winters of burning regularly (if not continuously), my stainless steel liner looked, well, brand new. There was no chimney fire.

However, there is some damage to the stainless steel liner, not from any fire, but from the overly-aggressive fire department that shoved a brush down the chimney which, according to my wife, they apparently tamped down with some kind of steel rod. Two tears in the top of the liner right up by the chimney cap. Chimney guy is crafting a stainless band aid for the tears, and will give it the CSIA certified stamp of approval once he puts the patch in place. He said I was lucky I didn't have a hole in my roof from the volunteer firefighters who can be, well, let's call it exuberant.

Thanks everyone, burn on.

 

[dmmoss51]

Let me start off by saying God Bless the fire fighters for the jobs they do. Especially FDNY and 9/11 - but you are right about the exuberance of some the the volunteer/paid on calls.

We had a nat gas leak when we installed our new cooking stove in January of 2011, the old shutoff valve coming out of the kitchen floor broke off when we slid the new stove into place. Got out of the house, turned off the gas at the meter, and called the gas company. As is SOP they called the fire department. Got every rig they own on my street and coordined off the whole area. Had a guy that had to be an 18 year old rookie standing in my driveway in full firefighter garb... including axe. I told him let's see if we can do this without the axe

Might have just turned into a good training excersise on incedent command but what a waste!

I am glad to know that if I ever really need them though they do like to respond. And I am also glad we don't get a bill for their services (other than our property taxes)

 

[BurnIt13]

Good news all around. Many people have too much pride or are too embarrassed to call for help. Some people wouldn't realize anything was wrong until the smoke detectors where going off (My wife).

Quick question. Does the fire department typically send you a bill for such services? Kind of like how you get a nice $400 bill for taking a short ride in an ambulance?

 

[USMC80]

Vise grip on tube then hammer on vise grip. I only removed one tube. Didn't hammer it hard enough back in and it dropped down when burning-had to hammer it back in. I wonder if I could squeeze brush around tubes next time. I liked the clips on my Quad better.

I was able to squeeze soot eater in between them just a PIA is all. Which way do you hammer the tube over?

 

[dmmoss51]

As I mentioned, in our area fire department is a government agency, paid for by our property taxes. I have heard of private fire departments that operate much more like the ambulance companies that would send you a bill (unless you bought a membership in the department which would be an annual bill to "cover" you if you had a fire) I think these are seen in more rural areas where response times and low tax bases makes the township / county etc unable to support the department.

 

[BurnIt13]

Just because it is a government agency doesn't mean they are not going to charge you money for their services Either way, good to know as I've never really thought about it. I'm sure some people have avoided calling the FD because they were afraid of a huge bill and watched their house burn down.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

An unexpected amount of buildup- should that really have been creosote- may also indicate that the fire is being cooled by air from a leaky gasket. That would be a lot of buildup for a leaky gasket, but... just thinking.

Just a thought.