How to put out a fire

[Welderman85]

Hello all today I was just getting a fire going and the stove and flue were just about up to temp then my phone rang. My mom was in a accident and need ed help. I don't trust my stove or me yet to just turn it down and leave. So I grabbed the ash buckle and a welding stub bucket from the garage and pulled the logs out and the scooped the coals out and left. Did I do any damage or send a bunch of creosote up the flue by doing this. I kinda panicked and didn't know what to do. But all is well now

 

[BIGChrisNH]

I'm sure you didn't damage anything. No quick way to put a fire out other than a fire extinguisher that I know of. Sounds like you did a good job. I wouldn't worry about any damage to anything.

 

[Bad LP]

You really need to get on with trusting your stove IMO. If was just getting going then all I would have done is be sure the door is closed and locked then turned the air down to 50%. If it caught... great. If not its out and not an issue.

 

[Highbeam]

You really need to get on with trusting your stove IMO. If was just getting going then all I would have done is be sure the door is closed and locked then turned the air down to 50%. If it caught... great. If not its out and not an issue.

Same but would have shut to a known low cruise setting or just slammed the air shut and left.

 

[Welderman85]

Same but would have shut to a known low cruise setting or just slammed the air shut and left.

That's what I thought at first was shut the air and let it go out. But I kinda panicked lol

 

[paulnlee]

Almost like some customers call me, had a flare up in my oven(electric) so they spray it and ruin the elements and liner. IT'S AN OVEN,,, IT'S A STOVE, let it burn.

 

[Bad LP]

You really need to get on with trusting your stove IMO. If was just getting going then all I would have done is be sure the door is closed and locked then turned the air down to 50%. If it caught... great. If not its out and not an issue.

I can keep my insert at 100%. All it does is burn faster wasting wood. I've run this every way possible keeping an eye on the collar temp (its all I can see) with my IR thermometer and everything is just fine.
The simplicity of it is great.

 

[Ashful]

I can keep my insert at 100%. All it does is burn faster wasting wood. I've run this every way possible keeping an eye on the collar temp (its all I can see) with my IR thermometer and everything is just fine.
The simplicity of it is great.

Same here, but to the OP or anyone else who hasn’t already proven that for themselves, I’d be advising as Highbeam did:

Same but would have shut to a known low cruise setting or just slammed the air shut and left.

 

[Zack R]

I would have left mine on cruise, set the furnace thermostat to a reasonable temp (in case I'm gone for a long time) and headed out the door.

If it was a freshly started fire I'd close the air control all the way down and let it die out on its own.

 

[weatherguy]

It's happened to me a few times, I put it on the lowest setting and leave, once it just fizzled out but a couple of other times it was burning nicely.

 

[Woody Stover]

get on with trusting your stove

That's what I thought at first was shut the air and let it go out.

Yeah, experiment with your stove to see what it does if you have a full load blazing, then shut the air down all the way. If it looks like it's going to snuff out eventually, you'll know that next time.
With my SIL's new secondary-burn stove, I can't completely kill the fire by cutting the air all the way. Installing a second flue damper seems to have given more control over the burn, but I'm going to alter the primary air intake so that the burn can be killed completely if necessary.
I've read here that in case of an overfire, you can shovel ashes in to slow the burn, but that probably wouldn't kill the burn completely.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Stove fine to turn down and head out. In that situation, turning down to half or a quarter open works. Try not to let stove anxiety take over. Your fam duties outweigh that.

 

[nola mike]

You really need to get on with trusting your stove IMO. If was just getting going then all I would have done is be sure the door is closed and locked then turned the air down to 50%. If it caught... great. If not its out and not an issue.

My stove would melt if I did that. Absolutely a good idea to know how your stove burns before trusting it.

 

[Supersurvey]

All good advise. One other thought, I would be more concerned with spilling hot enbers and starting a hosee fire after you left than an overfire.

 

[Bad LP]

As an addition to the topic on trusting your stove and techniques
On the opposite end of the spectrum if I shut my air completely off it will not snuff out the fire.

 

[blacktail]

Turn air down and leave.

 

[Sawset]

If I were left with a startup half way complete, turn the air down 3/4 and walk away. I could be confident doing that. Closing more like that could cause it to start backpuffing, maybe. More open, it may get a little hot, not by much, but. If it did end up smoldering cold and pollute the flue, the next fire would burn it back off. That last part, I would never be able to varify, other than - the flue here always brushes clean with little black residue, so my cold flue escapades do go somewhere.

 

[weatherguy]

It all depends on the setting you cruise your long burn. Put it there and hope for the best. Its its 25% closed put it there. If its 90% put it there.

 

[Grizzerbear]

Once you get comfortable running your stove this will b o non issue. That being said family comes first so i dont think you did the wrong thing....just did it the hard way. If i remember correctly in recent threads you stated if you close if your primary all the way it snuffs the fire out in your setup. Thats what you could have done but hey.....its hard to make perfectly rational decisions in emergencies. O yea and dont worry bout the creosote....if you took the wood out then it is impossible to create it.

 

[Ashful]

So... how's mom?

 

[Welderman85]

She's fine. She was just shooken up. She was going through a intersection and kid coming from the other direction was more interested in his phone then stopping for the red light. He clipped the rear of my moms car and spun her around. Her cars totaled but she's fine. Thank you

 

[fire_man]

AI would be more concerned with spilling hot enbers and starting a hosee fire after you left than an overfire.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Sometimes you can cause more harm than good overthinking something - like the time I shut my Furnace electric when we went away for a Summer vacation and came back to a flooded basement because the the dehumidifier drain pump was on the same circuit.

Glad it all worked out for you.

 

[iLoveWood]

Almost like some customers call me, had a flare up in my oven(electric) so they spray it and ruin the elements and liner. IT'S AN OVEN,,, IT'S A STOVE, let it burn.

I was pretty scared when the cookstove locked the door during a self clean cycle, there was a raging fire inside I could not get to.

 

[Bad LP]

I was pretty scared when the cookstove locked the door during a self clean cycle, there was a raging fire inside I could not get to.

That’s just fine. The lack of air sniffed out the fire. Opening the door is when problems start.

 

[paulnlee]

Exactly, but throw the breaker.