Potential chimney fire?

[Osuna]

My son lit his fireplace for the first time yesterday in a house (built in the 1940s) that he bought last spring. The chimney (no liner) had been cleaned and inspected and a cap was put on top. A few hours into the burn (22” cherry splits) the tempered glass doors to the chimney suddenly shattered. In addition, the plaster wall in the room immediately behind the chimney was too hot to touch and he immediately extinguished the fire. He also noticed that the mud room which is next to the chimney and separated by another plaster wall smelled of ash. Of course, he swears he’ll never use the fireplace again. He's familiar with wood stoves and burning in general. His little baby boy was sitting in his “activity center” 5-6 feet off to the side of fireplace opening and thankfully nothing happened to him.

What do you folks think happened? Chimney not up to code (it was inspected)? Just ran it too hot? Improper ventilation? Has anyone heard of something similar? Are 1940s chimney building codes different from today’s (probably)?

 

[peakbagger]

Sure sounds like a chimney fire, it probably it had some old glazed creosote in it and he lit it up with the new hot fire. If a fire department had responded, they would have probably cut a hole in the walls to see if there was charred wood inside. Many old chimneys did not have a liner and were one chimney fire from burning a house down. Some had wood right up tight against the brick and over the year of heating and cooling it pyrolyzes into charcoal.

My mom grew up on a farm and they had an unlined center chimney and burned green wood. They expected a chimney fire usually once or twice a year and the kids could see the flames though gaps in the chimney.

The fireplace is not a write off. If the flue is big enough a qualified pro could snake down a insulated liner and hook up a wood stove to it.

 

[bholler]

My son lit his fireplace for the first time yesterday in a house (built in the 1940s) that he bought last spring. The chimney (no liner) had been cleaned and inspected and a cap was put on top. A few hours into the burn (22” cherry splits) the tempered glass doors to the chimney suddenly shattered. In addition, the plaster wall in the room immediately behind the chimney was too hot to touch and he immediately extinguished the fire. He also noticed that the mud room which is next to the chimney and separated by another plaster wall smelled of ash. Of course, he swears he’ll never use the fireplace again. He's familiar with wood stoves and burning in general. His little baby boy was sitting in his “activity center” 5-6 feet off to the side of fireplace opening and thankfully nothing happened to him.

What do you folks think happened? Chimney not up to code (it was inspected)? Just ran it too hot? Improper ventilation? Has anyone heard of something similar? Are 1940s chimney building codes different from today’s (probably)?

If it actually has no liner it should have never passed any sort of inspection and shouldn't have been used.

The tempered glass broke because it was tempered glass not pryro ceramic glass. Typically never meant to be burned with the doors closed