Scary situation

[hawkeye4771]

Few days ago I'd just put a couple fresh pieces of wood in the stove and closed the door but didn't throw the latch down so as to let the draft suck some air in over the coals to heat up and ignite the fresh logs. A few minutes later the smoke alarm went off but there was no smoke though the fire thru the window in the door showed the fire now raging. I went over and threw down the latch on the door but noticed thru the window looking out over the backyard all kinds of grayish smoke coming down to the ground. Went out and looked up at the stovepipe and the cap on the top has been getting more and more clogged with creosote but smoke was coming out so I went back inside and then noticed that the stovepipe had come away from where it goes thru the wall and in the gap I could see the sparks passing thru. I pushed the stovepipe back into the wall and then saw it glowing orange where it met the metal plate on the wall. I called the local Vol. Fire Chief who has a business right in town and he came down and we took out the logs inside that were burning as well as emptied the ashes in the stove. Within 15-20 minutes the wall around the stovepipe had cooled down so he suggested to get that cap off the top of stovepipe up on the roof as most likely as the wood in the stove flared up and was burning HOT ,all that heat and smoke couldn't get up and out the pipe as fast as it was being pushed out from the stove and caused it to back up and push the stovepipe inside away from the wall. The thick grayish smoke outside must have been creosote at the top being burned off. I got hold of a local guy that does odd jobs and he came down and was able to get the cap off the top and I've been burning ever since with no issues but whoa what a scare !!

 

[blades]

Glad things worked out ok, Notes: need dryer wood, need to clean that cap more often and if it has a screen -take the screen off- those screens have caused more problems than they are worth

 

[red oak]

The screen can get clogged pretty easily especially if the wood being burned is not dry. I clean my cap and screen fully after every burning season. Got a buddy who takes the screen off in the fall and puts it back on in the spring so birds can’t get in the chimney. For me cleaning once a year is fine but it’s pretty easy for me to visually inspect and clean if needed.

 

[Oww My Back Hurts]

Thanks for sharing with us, it's always good to hear things like this so we can learn from it.

Do you recall how long it's been since the last time you cleaned your chimney? I clean mine once a year but I always wonder if I need to do it more often.

 

[Jags]

And note that there should be 3 screws in every joint.

 

[hawkeye4771]

Thanks for sharing with us, it's always good to hear things like this so we can learn from it.

Do you recall how long it's been since the last time you cleaned your chimney? I clean mine once a year but I always wonder if I need to do it more often.

I clean mine each year right after I'm done burning in spring/summer. From running the brush up and down the pipe 3-4 times to using a shop vac to clean out any ash/creosote in the horizontal sections plus vaccuming out the top of the stove where the pipe comes off. So I'm diligent about cleaning all the sections from the stove right up to the top. The cap off the top had blown off a couple years ago and I had a man over here cleaning my gutters . I intend to put the house up for sale so I told the man that I'd like to have the cap put back up on the stove pipe. I'd seen the cap and had planned on giving it a good cleaning but the man finished the gutters and put the cap back on before I got home and had a chance to clean it off. The wood I burn is all top of the line good hard, seasoned hardwood from the same supplier for the last 8 years so I think it was just the cap needed a good cleaning and whatever I'd burned this past burn season just added to the build-up on the cap. I'll get a new cap and leave it off until I list the house and put the cap back up on top at that time.