- Oct 3, 2007
- 1,539
I had a weird thing happen this morning that I've never experienced in five years of burning wood. I had a good bed of coals from an all night burn as usual so I threw in four splits to get a fire going for the morning. I went upstairs to feed the dog, let him out, and get the coffee on. I went back down to the basement probably five minutes later and found the firebox full of thick smoke but no flames. Nothing was backing up into the house or anything, so I opened the door to let a little more air in (the draft was already all the way open)-none of the smoke came out, it just kind of hung in the firebox, not really going up the flue, but not backing up into the house either.
I closed the door figuring that the fire would get going eventually. When I did I heard a loud "PFFFFT!" A short blast of smoke shot out from the draft control and then flames began to appear in the firebox. I'm guessing that a bunch of wood gas had built up inside the firebox and it ignited, pressurizing it momentarily, but I can't figure out why it collected like that in the first place instead of venting up the flue like normal? I've never had a draft problem before. High barometric pressure maybe? Anyway, no big deal, no harm done, just scared the bejeezus out of me at 5:30 a.m. before I had my first swig of coffee...
I closed the door figuring that the fire would get going eventually. When I did I heard a loud "PFFFFT!" A short blast of smoke shot out from the draft control and then flames began to appear in the firebox. I'm guessing that a bunch of wood gas had built up inside the firebox and it ignited, pressurizing it momentarily, but I can't figure out why it collected like that in the first place instead of venting up the flue like normal? I've never had a draft problem before. High barometric pressure maybe? Anyway, no big deal, no harm done, just scared the bejeezus out of me at 5:30 a.m. before I had my first swig of coffee...