Mishaps Anyone?

[Wood Wules]

A few days ago I had a nice fire going in my insert. I didn't notice that the pad that stops where the brick ends had slid to the right. Somehow an ember found its way unto the carpet. Luckily I was there. When I started detecting the toxic smell of the carpet smouldering. I threw my bottle of Poland Springs on it causing a loud sizzling noise. I caught it in time leaving a big hole in the carpet. I covered it over by putting the pad where it was supposed to be. Disaster averted.

Yesterday I was splitting wood. When one log didn't split all the way I pulled it off the splitter causing it to clamp on my finger. I thought it was being crushed. Fortunately there was a small crowbar I used to pry my finger out without any real damage.

Do you guys have any tales of mishaps major and minor?

 

[begreen]

Pads are supposed to be fixed in place. Put at least a couple screws in the corners of the pad to keep it from moving. I'm glad you had that little crowbar close by, that sounds painful. Good reason to always wear leather gloves when working with wood.

 

[Woody Stover]

Plenty of mishaps here but I'd rather not detail them, at the risk of appearing to be an even bigger idjit than I already do.

 

[NoGoodAtScreenNames]

Alright I'll bite...

About 2 weeks into my life of burning I finally got up the nerve to rake the coals forward and do a hot reload. I used the shovel from the fireplace tools that I inherited from the prior owner of the house.

As I pulled them forward I saw a little ember stuck at the end of the shovel. No big deal so I went about my business. Then the ember starting smoking and again I didn't think anything of it when all of a sudden the tip of the shovel burst into flames. I tried to shake the flame off inside the insert which only made the flame bigger.

My first reaction was to leave it in the stove to burn off but the flame was actually starting to progress up the handle and I had no idea where it would stop. The last owner didn't really use the fireplace much. He was more of an occasional Duralog kind of guy who never really had a need for the tools for anything hot. He must have oiled or painted them with a regular oil based paint to make them look pretty.

I didn't think carrying a torch through the house was a good idea. I thought the best idea would be to get a bucket of water to submerse it in. But I didn't think walking away from a stove with the door open was a good idea either. I could call to my wife for help, but she was already a little worried about me burning the house down because I was a total newb and didn't know what I was doing. How would it look if I screamed to her in panic that I set a piece of metal on fire? But ultimately I decided that was the best option and she brought a bucket of water over.

The next day is when I bought a small fire extinguisher to keep right next to the stove. The wife surprisingly continued to let me burn but it took a while to convince her it wasn't my fault.

 

[Simonkenton]

How about a boo boo my neighbor made.
This guy moved up here to the North Carolina mountains from Ft. Lauderdale, he had never seen a wood stove. He bought a big 3 bedroom log cabin that had a metal fireplace in it, had a framed up chimney chase with a steel stove pipe.
Frank told me that he was going to install a wood stove into that fireplace. Free standing stove.
I went online and bought a book that had all the regs and specs and "how to" with pics for wood stove installs, three days later I gave that book to Frank and said "Merry Christmas."

A week later he installed the wood stove. A week later he lit the stove for the second time, went off to work, and his house burned down. I saw the report from the Fire Marshall, it said "Improper wood stove installation."
I asked Frank, "Did you ever get a chance to read that wood stove book I gave you."
He said "No, it burned up in the fire."

 

[Wood Wules]

Thanks be green. I was wearing padded gloves from HF. I would have been much worse off without them.

No Good and Simon those are top notch stories. C'mon Woody lay one on us.

 

[kennyp2339]

Dad went on a Rambo style cutting rampage with the chainsaw up a semi dry stream bed, he tripped and lander on the saw with his hand, 150 stiches later we were back home.
I let my dad borrow my new iron and oak splitter, he went to put it in vertical mode but never removed the locking pin, so over the course of splitting 2 cords, my I-beam became bent.
My dad sitting on the hearth with his back facing the front of his insert lit himself on fire and didn't realize it until he was literally smoldering, he was deep in a story about growing up poor (was a funny story) so my sister and I let him finish it.
When my dad goes to sell the house he will probably need to pour a new garage floor since he re-splits all his wood directly on the cement, the floor looks worse then the Jersey Turnpike. (There is a half log next to his wood rack to act as a chopping block)
My dad is a seasoned vet when it comes to burning, if you look at his arm it has more hash marks then a 25 year army sergeant from loading the stove with no gloves. (the long cut welding gloves are kept to the right of the insert on the hearth)

*there are many other noteworthy stories, now you guys have a taste why I either split all the firewood, or buy them bio bricks

 

[Beer Belly]

I've got plenty of little burn marks on my Hearth Rug. Worst boo boo was while doing simple yard work, was having a few adult beverages.....my buddy stops by with his Wife, and asks, "Whatchya doin' ?"....told him "some yard work, and I was thinking of cutting down that low branch over the Firepit, but figure I best wait till tomorrow"....he says "Why wait till tomorrow ??...get a ladder and get that branch down !"....so, up I go, 10 feet up, one handing the Chainsaw reaching around for the branch.....chainsaw kicks back, swings me around, I lose my footing on the ladder....first reaction is throw the saw, second reaction is to look at where I'm gonna land.....right into the boulders surrounding the tree.....scraped the heck out my arm against the tree on the way down, bruised the living crap out of my hip on the boulders, but had all my limbs and didn't damage the saw.....Wife was p*ssed, and mad. I'm sure the beverages didn't help.

 

[firefighterjake]

Dad went on a Rambo style cutting rampage with the chainsaw up a semi dry stream bed, he tripped and lander on the saw with his hand, 150 stiches later we were back home.
I let my dad borrow my new iron and oak splitter, he went to put it in vertical mode but never removed the locking pin, so over the course of splitting 2 cords, my I-beam became bent.
My dad sitting on the hearth with his back facing the front of his insert lit himself on fire and didn't realize it until he was literally smoldering, he was deep in a story about growing up poor (was a funny story) so my sister and I let him finish it.
When my dad goes to sell the house he will probably need to pour a new garage floor since he re-splits all his wood directly on the cement, the floor looks worse then the Jersey Turnpike. (There is a half log next to his wood rack to act as a chopping block)
My dad is a seasoned vet when it comes to burning, if you look at his arm it has more hash marks then a 25 year army sergeant from loading the stove with no gloves. (the long cut welding gloves are kept to the right of the insert on the hearth)

*there are many other noteworthy stories, now you guys have a taste why I either split all the firewood, or buy them bio bricks

Sounds like it is a miracle your father has lived to the ripe old age that he has . . .

 

[kennyp2339]

Sounds like it is a miracle your father has lived to the ripe old age that he has . . .

Lol - that's just wood stove adventures, there's plenty of other stories non woodstove related, but I have to tell you that it's always an adventure and pleasure when we do a project at his house or my house.

 

[CIRENHOJ]

Wife put a few candles on top of the stove the other night when we had company over. No fire that night, too warm out. So, a few days later I lit a fire. Forgot about the candles. Started smelling something off, then realized the candles were melting all over the stove top, dripping onto hearth. Nasty. I got the candles off the stove, luckily only about 1/4 of each one had melted (they were sitting on little plates) but I had to the let the wax burn off of the stove. It didn't take too long but needed the windows and doors open and fans on high. That won't happen again!

 

[jatoxico]

the tip of the shovel burst into flames.

He must have oiled or painted them with a regular oil based paint to make them look pretty.

That's pretty funny. I have an old Windex spray bottle full of water next to the stove that I use for wetting newspaper to give the glass a wipe now and then. Can be used for small misadventures that aren't extinguisher worthy.

 

[Wood Wules]

Some great stories. I like the one where the dad was on fire and Kenny let him finish his story. I would love to have seen beer belly in action. That would have been a sensation on you tube. A similar thing happened to me one year when I was putting Christmas lights on a tree outside which was among a bunch of boulders. I also blame adult beverages.

I'll wager there are many more stories out there.

 

[begreen]

My biggest mishap was with the Castine. We didn't have a lot of time to worry about wood burning or the stove when it went in. All our efforts were focussed on getting the house back together after being up in the air 6 ft and half torn apart. Our wood supply was the victim of neglect that year. The Castine took much larger wood than the F3CB it replaced which gave me an opportunity to burn up some longer scrounged pieces. Problem was that this wood was not all that well seasoned. I was having a very hard time getting it going and almost ready to give up. After the third try and losing yet another batch of kindling to the unsuccessful start and not wanting to open the stove door and fill the house with smoke, I committed the cardinal sin of opening the ash pan door. (Yes I did penance afterward and beat myself with a splintery split.) Soon coals started glowing and I watched with hope through the fog of smoke building in the stove. Suddenly a flame appeared and then with an enormous Kawhumph! the pent up smoke ignited. In a second smoke blew out of every orifice of the stove, every seam in the stove pipe, and of course blowing ash and smoke out of the open ashpan door. It was all over in a flash, but I spent the next half hour airing out the house, cleaning up ash, saying hail marys and changing underwear. Thank goodness for 3 screws in every pipe joint!