Your chimney clean ? These were not ...................

[BrotherBart]

With a BC extingisher you will just have dry powder to clean up. With a ABC type if a fire is going, which I would guess would be the case if you thought you were having a chimney fire, you are going to have some goo to clean out of the stove since the monoammonium phosphate in them will stick to hot surfaces.

 

[Rick]

In my career as a firefighter I've been to at least 50 chimney fires. In all those only a handful extended past the chimney. In most of those cases the homes were very old with either no flue or flues with mortar joints missing (and unlined). First and foremost, damp down the unit, and get out. Call 911 from outside or a neighbors. Resist the urge to spray water onto the chimney, especially a masonry one, you'll destroy the flue. Basic preventative maintenance can prevent 99% of all chimney fires. We have one "frequent customer" who every year purposely sets one off, he lives on a busy road so we inevitably get called. He does it to clean his chimney. Not smart, but this guy is an old timer who has been burning for years. I used to worry myself awake back in the day over chimney fires, then I actually saw some and what they do, now i don't worry (as) much. Bottom line, a correctly installed system, some common sense when using it, and appropriate preventative maintenance; you should be fine.

Rick

 

[fbelec]

rick's the man.

that is exactly how my chimney fire went. when my fire happened someone seen the flames from the street and started banging on the door's on the way by the stove i shut the door, shut the primary air and closed the baffle. then went outside the look and there it was, the nastiest looking flames. but because i shut everything down the flames were disappearing back into the chimney. by the time the firemen got there it was just mostly smoke. they went up on the roof and looked down the chimney and saw a small glow of red in the flue. there was not enough oxygen for the fire because i shut things down. so the they came in took out the active fire out of the stove into a bucket and into the backyard and sprayed a powder fire extinguisher into the stove pipe and that put out the fire right away. had to clean the house after that. that yellow power is nasty. the chimney was still throwing heat out of it 2 days after. and the stove was ice cold. and btw it did the best job of cleaning the flue. it looked like it was a brand new chimney.