House Fire,Possibly by Pellet Stove.
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CT Pellet
Minister of Fire
Sad to see this happen. Fortunately, she is not homeless and is able to stay with family. With situations like this, it can be very tempting to publically speculate on forums like this as to what happened. Let's follow this story but try to resist the "what probably happened here is..." comments. Everyone, keep your stove clean, respect the fire and be safe.
They never provide decent pictures of things and the only way you'll find out what caused the fire is to get a copy of the fire marshal's (or fire department's) investigation report which are public records. It is rare for the media to do a follow up on such stories.
Interesting color inside the termination cap.
I can't say as I care for the up portion being outside but as long as you keep up with the cleaning there shouldn't be an issue.
Not much to go on from those pictures and stuff has been moved or removed
Interesting color inside the termination cap.
I can't say as I care for the up portion being outside but as long as you keep up with the cleaning there shouldn't be an issue.
Not much to go on from those pictures and stuff has been moved or removed
I guess I'm a little surprised the fire extended into the walls so quick. Something had to be opened, like the hopper or the firebox or at least a leak in the venting in order to spread. Perhaps a shopvac with hot ash next to the stove. Who knows? Like everyone is saying it is difficult to guess what happen. Too many variables. It would be nice to know so we can learn from others misfortune.
Sure is tough to say what happened, but the news said flames were coming from the pellet stove! ! ! I do not like installs with outside vertical rise, it should be on the inside.
Interesting part about that is, I worked on a Thelin Gnome stove and the inspector said because it is a prefab Modular house and the vertical rise MUST be on the outside!
Then I started taking the pipe off the stove and the inside thimble fell off because the screws did not hit a stud and there were no anchors! LOL Something the inspector missed but I fixed it!
The fireman says the fire appears to be accidental. What does this mean? Not arson?
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I must admit, i do feel a bit safer having my stove as an insert. Even if the thing goes up in flames, its in the fireplace deisgned to hold a fire. It may be a flase sense of security, but i figure if its going to burn, that's the safest place for it to be.
The colder outside setup will cause more ash to settle out inside the venting instead of being dumped outside the venting is one difference.
I am no pro, and I do see both installs in the instruction manual. But up and out allows for that legnth of the vent pipe to be in a warm space. A warm pipe will draft better allowing the warm air to exhaust before it cools and the exhaust particals from sticking to the walls of the pipe. Plus a warm internal vertical exhaust will in some little way help heat.
this woud be true if we're dealing with VOC's suspended in the exhaust stream but ash is not in solution, it is just carried by the column of air. If the stove is actually running correctly you have a pretty low occurance of VOC's in the exhaust, of course, in many cases of fire the stoves are not running correctly. There are many more variables that would contribute to the collection of ash than the pie being outside than inside, and of course, the overall length of run would have to be considered, but the temp difference between inside and outside on a pellet unit is not quite the same as say a wood stove would be, bwhich is why you always use Class A pipe on exteriors when dealing with wood. Static electricty is a huge factor in ash accumulation in pellet stove venting, and thats hard to combat. Over the years I have not noted any significant difference between inside and outside venting, when the stoves are properly cared for. That said, there's likely to be some instances that defy my observations, but I'd consider the host of other variables as the primary culprits before I'd suggest an outside venting configuration as the prime candidate for ash collection. Of course I mean no disrepect to other's observations and experiences. I dont know, and have not seen it all. 
Those are preferred over black (a little black is one thing but there is too much from what I'm seeing).
You do have to make some allowance for start up and shut down, but that looks like too much to me.
You do have to make some allowance for start up and shut down, but that looks like too much to me.
if the stove was the source of the fire or even if it was not but maybe to a lesser extent , the fire event prob changed the color in the vent ?
looks to be of adequate or even oversize diameter no ? looks like 6 inch ?
lets say it was the stove , i assume a dirty burn could/would lead to a chimney fire if never cleaned ?
if the vent was undersized or oversized ,what would the typical results/sympoms be ?
new guy , just trying to learn
looks to be of adequate or even oversize diameter no ? looks like 6 inch ?
lets say it was the stove , i assume a dirty burn could/would lead to a chimney fire if never cleaned ?
if the vent was undersized or oversized ,what would the typical results/sympoms be ?
new guy , just trying to learn
We don 't have enough information to tell what happened and why.
That vent seems intact (from what we can see of the picture) with the exception it has been pulled off the stove and out of the wall.
The fire may have been from inside the stove or from an ash container we don't know and the video is not providing any real information.
We have seen times when ash was disposed of by placing it in a pizza box and setting it on a deck, or the venting had a joint inside the wall or inside the house near the wall and the joint separated, there are also at least two recent threads on here of hopper fires that the owner was asking for help to fix and so forth. Just not enough information to go on in this case.
Undersized venting usually leads to poor burns and a lot of ash build up, ash build up is a very bad thing.
Oversize venting can also lead to poor burns etc .... but to be over sized you usually have to exceed 36 square inches of cross section and have bit of length.
That vent seems intact (from what we can see of the picture) with the exception it has been pulled off the stove and out of the wall.
The fire may have been from inside the stove or from an ash container we don't know and the video is not providing any real information.
We have seen times when ash was disposed of by placing it in a pizza box and setting it on a deck, or the venting had a joint inside the wall or inside the house near the wall and the joint separated, there are also at least two recent threads on here of hopper fires that the owner was asking for help to fix and so forth. Just not enough information to go on in this case.
Undersized venting usually leads to poor burns and a lot of ash build up, ash build up is a very bad thing.
Oversize venting can also lead to poor burns etc .... but to be over sized you usually have to exceed 36 square inches of cross section and have bit of length.
Yeah and ISTR one case of someone starting their shop vacuum on fire as well.
I really hate guessing about these things and there are plenty of things that can go wrong.
I really hate guessing about these things and there are plenty of things that can go wrong.
i'm not guessing , i'm just fishing for general knowledge
wow 36" cross section
pizza box is just stupid
i do wonder if her fire was on the floor or wall as a result of combustibles/clearances but in my own interest , venting is where i am really looking , i was "ejumakated affa da fax bout dat EViL" and am maarginal but don't want to totaly derail this thread , i do have "test" options and am exploring them / watching results
at the same time , i just put this thing in and do not want a fire , have 5 extingushers and smoke/co detetectors
wow 36" cross section
pizza box is just stupid
i do wonder if her fire was on the floor or wall as a result of combustibles/clearances but in my own interest , venting is where i am really looking , i was "ejumakated affa da fax bout dat EViL" and am maarginal but don't want to totaly derail this thread , i do have "test" options and am exploring them / watching results
at the same time , i just put this thing in and do not want a fire , have 5 extingushers and smoke/co detetectors
X2, that is a big difference and vent cleaning must be done more often to keep the stove safe.
Northwoodneil
Feeling the Heat
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