Firemen used chemical is Mansfield, now full of black goo!!!

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aurora04444

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I had a tiny chimney fire, the neighbors called and the 5-7 firemen arrived. I'm used to occasional chimney fires and you damper down everything and are very watchful. Well, the firemen put some sort of chemical into my beautiful Mansfield Hearthstone, said it wouldn't harm anything. HA! First off, the chemical dust went everywhere and it causes severe burning of nasal passages, throat and eyes, in addition to coughing. Everything has to be cleaned in the whole house. Animals are also having respiratory problems.

Secondly, which is really scaring me, is that my stove is full of sticky black goo, the reburner tubes are full of it! I removed the ashes, loose powder and vacuumed. Then I scraped what I could off the interior of the stove and vacuumed again. I started up a fire hoping the goo will burn off. There is an acid smell and the black goo has softened only so far. I am crossing my fingers!!!
Aurora
 
"I’m used to occasional chimney fires"

A little off topic here, but I have to ask. Whoaaaaa. How are you used to the occasional chimney fire?

As for the black gunk, since you've already burned it, I'd continue to burn it and hope for the best. Why not find out from the FD what the chemical is?
 
Sorry to hear about your chimney fire. Glad to hear you have a home to go to. Seriously, there is no such thing as a small chimney fire. The potential of one taking down your house is too great. Would be a good warning to clean your chimney more often.

Whatever the goo is, you need to ask the fire department what it is and how to remove it. Assuming you can burn it off may not be the best decision. Once you know what it is, give the forum a shout to help you clean the stove.
 
And make sure you tell your neighbors that the next time your house is on fire, you don't want them to call the fire department.

Damn do-gooders.
 
Thanks for thr well-wishes!
Controlled chimney fires were done in olden days and still are used by people. I don't try to have them in my old house, but our family has burned wood for 38 years in 200+ year old houses and had no problems. Chimney fires can be controlled and we are not phased by them. I'm used to everyone on this site being agast at my comments!

Anyway, I meant to go to the Fire Dept today and get ther MSDS sheets on what ever chemical it was. Will do it tomorrow or call them. I'll let you know what they say.

Night!
Aurora
 
Hi, I know my neighbors or people passing by meant well...
But this town is odd. I once had the librarian ask me to do her a favor and fix my house. And people walk past my house and say rude things while I am gardening and they don't see me. And people saw us removing siding and called the town on us and officals came to see what we were doing. I can't wait to move away from downtown.
 
Aurora said:
Thanks for thr well-wishes!
Controlled chimney fires were done in olden days and still are used by people. I don't try to have them in my old house, but our family has burned wood for 38 years in 200+ year old houses and had no problems. Chimney fires can be controlled and we are not phased by them. I'm used to everyone on this site being agast at my comments!

Anyway, I meant to go to the Fire Dept today and get ther MSDS sheets on what ever chemical it was. Will do it tomorrow or call them. I'll let you know what they say.

Night!
Aurora
Click to expand...

That's like saying "I close my eyes when I cross the road, haven't been killed yet" - it's all about playing the averages. Ten year old girls used to run looms, but would also get scalped and killed - we've moved on from there - childhood mortality (especially in the workplace!) is a little lower than 150 years ago.

Chimney fires cannot be controlled and frankly you're kidding yourself. Maybe you will never have a serious one, but maybe someone you convince that they are safe (sons, daughters, friends) will. Do you wear your seatbelt in the car?
 
I would imagine the FD used a traditional dry chemical fire suppressant. It came out of a red extinguisher, correct?

With that, the "black goo" in your stove could very well be...well, creosote.
 
OH those Darn Firemen!!! :roll: Get off your but, sweep your chimney, learn to operate your stove properly, burn only dry wood and dont waste your time trying to convince anybody controlled chimney fires are a safe practice. Sounds like you would like to sue the person that gave your animals respiratory problems. :coolsmirk:
 
Frostbit said:
With that, the "black goo" in your stove could very well be...well, creosote.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this one. Although there are some dry packs that are available. I tried to find something on the ones used in Germany, but haven't found it yet.

I still have the Halon set from my Spray booth that is no longer legal, but boy will it suppress a fire.
 
Lets not be so harsh on this guy for being told raised with incorrect thinking on chimenys.. will do nothing but upset him and make him continue on with this unsafe practice.. I understand doung things wrong and not knowing any better.. some times it hard to change into doing it right.. I for one would like to help this guy do things a different way then the way he is doing it for the saftey of himself and others around him, and would like him to stay with us on hearth.com to share with us, and grow as a woodburner to be able to teach others that come across his path someday to do things correctly.. its not expensive or hard.. its just having the right info.


Welcome friend,

Ray
 
Regardless of the goo in your stove, has anyone inspected your chimney to make sure it is still useable?

Shari
 
We're all glad that you, your family, and your house are safe and sound. I think everyone really means to offer constructive criticism - sometimes the hardest thing to hear for us silly, emotional, stubborn Homo sapiens.

I would venture to say that everyone's true is concern is that a "controlled" chimney fire can quickly escalate into one that is uncontrollable, putting your lives and home at risk. Today's modern stoves (and it sounds like you have one), when operated properly should drastically reduce the need for any such controlled chimney fires. Withe seasoned wood and a little proper maintenance during, before, and just after the burning season, you can make those controlled fires a thing of the past!

Hope your stove gets cleaned up.
 
If the color of the residual powder is yellow, they probably dumped a dry-chem extinguisher into your fire box. This is usually done by inexperienced fire departments who simply don't know what they're doing. If a dry-chem extinguisher is to be used, they should have made every effort to deploy salvage tarps throughout the living area adjacent to the wood stove. My department stopped using chemical agents well over 15 years ago. A chimney fire is handled very simply by removing the remaining wood from the fire box (using a sealed/covered, metallic salvage bucket); checking the flue from the roof down, and going from there...
 
Hey I got family up in Ellsworth and North Sullivan :)

Seriously - tough to balance the ~40 yrs of burning w/ modern "best practices".

I am wondering - what is Aurora burning? Now well seasoned is it? Is the flue a full-height liner? And how often is the flue cleaned?
 
I'd like to see Jake chime in here on what might have been used in the stove.
 
My father was never concerned about chimney fires. We had them often in the masonry chimney that served the cook stove and his opinion was that it was self cleaning. The only time he would ever clean the masonry chimney was when my mother nagged him if the stove ran poorly. Unfortunately he carried the same philosophy to the Selkirk flue that he never cleaned but eventually burned his house to the ground.

I'm sorry that you had a chimney fire, that the fire department fouled your home and stove, and that you consider controlled chimney fires acceptable with the resultant nagging and preaching. That said, misdirecting anger at the neighbor and the fire department is not right. Once you find out what chemical they used and the best method to clean it up, you might look into whether a CSL (Chimney Sweep Log) would be suitable for cleaning the interior of the stove.

http://www.chimneysweepinglog.com/
 
Backwoods Savage said:
I'd like to see Jake chime in here on what might have been used in the stove.
Click to expand...

My guess . . .

(broken link removed to http://www.ronasgroup.com/monoammonium-phosphate.asp)


Monoammonium phosphate . . . the chemical most commonly found in the ABC chemical fire extinguisher.

It does have a slighly acidic smell and I have had some folks in my extinguisher classes report respiratory issues . . . typically however they are asthmatics.
 
Aurora said:
I had a tiny chimney fire, the neighbors called and the 5-7 firemen arrived. I'm used to occasional chimney fires and you damper down everything and are very watchful. Well, the firemen put some sort of chemical into my beautiful Mansfield Hearthstone, said it wouldn't harm anything. HA! First off, the chemical dust went everywhere and it causes severe burning of nasal passages, throat and eyes, in addition to coughing. Everything has to be cleaned in the whole house. Animals are also having respiratory problems.

Secondly, which is really scaring me, is that my stove is full of sticky black goo, the reburner tubes are full of it! I removed the ashes, loose powder and vacuumed. Then I scraped what I could off the interior of the stove and vacuumed again. I started up a fire hoping the goo will burn off. There is an acid smell and the black goo has softened only so far. I am crossing my fingers!!!
Aurora
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to where and how they applied this chemical . . . we will occasionally use either baggies with the powder from an ABC rated chemical extinguisher or an actual ABC chemical extinguisher on the fire . . . but typically we drop the baggies from the top or spray the extinguisher in the clean-out. In the first case the chemical typically is limited to the chimney due to the natural draft. In the second case, we would attempt to shut the clean out door afterwards, but depending on how fast the door is shut (or if it's shut) some of the chemical may come out. If sprayed inside the stove, yeah, I suspect there would be a mess all over the place.

I suspect this is monoammonium phosphate -- it's typically yellow in color. It's also very fine so it can get everywhere. It is slightly corrosive to metal. Some folks have had some respiratory issues -- typically folks with compromised respiratory problems such as asthma.

When sprayed directly on to a fire (flammable fuel fire in my case) there is some black sludge that is the residual chemical.

Not knowing, it almost sounds as if they sprayed a fire extinguisher or tossed the chemical directly into the firebox . . . something I would be a bit leery of doing myself . . . putting it down the chimney would be my preferred option as this is typically where the chimney fire is "located."

To get rid of this (if it was in fact sprayed in the firebox) I would try physically removing it by scraping and cleaning it out as best as you can vs. attempting to burn it off since the chemical is in fact designed to inhibit the chemical reaction of the burning process (vs. removing the oxygen like a CO2 extinguisher or cooling down the fire to blow the ignition temperature such as a water extinguisher.)

My advice.

1) The next time the firefighters come strongly suggest to them that they open the clean-out door (assuming it's a masonry chimney) and have them either throw a quarter to half cup of water on any exposed hot cinders or bits of creosote that may have dropped to the base of the chimney . . . or spray the fire extinguisher up the clean out.

An alternative would be to drop the baggies from the top down . . . generally I try to stay clear of the firebox unless I absolutely have to put out the fire that way.

2) Start regularly inspecting and cleaning your chimney . . . and if possible make sure you're burning seasoned wood and burning hot enough.
 
firefighterjake said:
Backwoods Savage said:
I'd like to see Jake chime in here on what might have been used in the stove.
Click to expand...

My guess . . .

(broken link removed to http://www.ronasgroup.com/monoammonium-phosphate.asp)


Monoammonium phosphate . . . the chemical most commonly found in the ABC chemical fire extinguisher.

It does have a slighly acidic smell and I have had some folks in my extinguisher classes report respiratory issues . . . typically however they are asthmatics.
Click to expand...

Thats what we use in my department too. Back this past January a bag broke in one of our trucks and I had the honors of cleaning it up. It does taste nasty, it does give you a little cough (when you stir it up into the air), but you and you pets should be fine....MUCH better than being stuck in the hospital with 3rd degrees imho

Oh and ours is packed into little bags
 
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