Almost lost our home tonight Chimney fire...

[QuickBpBp]

Luckily we were home when all of a sudden it sounded like a locomotive was running through our home. I ran in and saw the chimney above our wood stove was glowing red and engulfed in flames... I was able to empty a large extinguisher on it but there was more fire above. 2 hours with 2 fire companies here all is well now. Scary **** for sure. Outside thick heavy smoke bellowing out the chimney. My wife and I Spent about 2 hours cleaning 2 rooms that got dusty with one of those expensive dustless shop vacs and cleaning solution wiping everything down. They had set-up good ventilation with a large fan from the main garage door having the house entrance door open to that room and flowing out the front door and 2 windows so no smoke damage just extinguisher dust from my extinguisher, chimney bombs and scraping down the whole chimney. We were VERY fortunate that the man upstairs was watching over our home and that my wife forgot to load the fire this afternoon before heading out...

 

[dual fours]

Wow, glad you, your family and home are ok. Fire moves fast with draft. I have a habit when I walk past any Fire Extinguisher, that I look at the gauge. Sometimes I catch one with low pressure.

 

[NoCar2023]

Good job putting that out, I am glad all is Okay.

 

[Billccm]

Glad to hear the damage was not worse. As a volunteer firefighter years ago I made it to several runaway chimney calls. You are one of the lucky few.

Call a chimney cleaning company as soon as possible.

 

[gdrill]

Very happy it turned out as well as it did for you.

 

[QuickBpBp]

Glad to hear the damage was not worse. As a volunteer firefighter years ago I made it to several runaway chimney calls. You are one of the lucky few.

Call a chimney cleaning company as soon as possible.

They removed the wood stove as what they scraped filled it to the flue of the stove with glowing red creosote... On fuel oil now and will be shopping for a new wood stove and a stainless liner.. Got 6-7 cords of wood split here and no use for it...

 

[QuickBpBp]

Stressed out, Exhausted and heading up for a shower...I thought the worst part of my day was finishing up a split rail fence repair job in the dark until I got home and was eating a late dinner... All and All I know how bad it could have been had we not been home and am very Thankful... This Christmas will be a little more special to us as we got a great gift already.

 

[Cranky]

Oh man! I'm glad that y'all didn't lose the house and the damage was minimal. Always figured the wife would burn this place down with the fires that she would stack. She like it roaring! Maybe that's what helped keep the chimney clean....

 

[Cornpatch MO]

Creosote build up that gets hot enough to catch on fire is scary stuff. Certain kinds of wood gives off more of that , than others. The biggest problem is with wood that is not dried enough. You can get a product that can be put on the wood when you load the stove, that aids in getting rid of that creosote build up.......MO

 

[kiwigtx]

I too am pleased you caught that fire in time. Nothing worse than house embers on Christmas Day.

 

[Xp29h]

If that had to happen a all, I’m glad you caught it and was home to deal with it! Good job!

We had one a long time ago in an old Franklin type stove. Not very big but definitely locomotive sounding! Loud!

 

[Richard Cranium]

Luckily we were home when all of a sudden it sounded like a locomotive was running through our home. I ran in and saw the chimney above our wood stove was glowing red and engulfed in flames...

Must have been scary as all hell and I'm glad you're here to tell us about it.

Personally, I'll stick to heating my house with propane.

 

[moparedtn]

Thank God no one was hurt and your home was saved.
This hits home here actually - we have a smaller built-in fireplace in this 20 year old
house and those always made me nervous - yeah, I know there's a steel liner encapsulating
the liner of the thing and all, but I always wondered how long before a pinhole or something
develops, either in the box or the vertical ducting to the roof?
Fortunately, the thing is more for show since it's a small one and I can't burn very big logs
in it, but still...

 

[Dennis H]

Glad you’re all ok! If I lit my fireplace here in Willow Glen, I’d be in jail.

 

[BB BELLA]

Happy to hear that you just ended up with a mess to clean up and nothing catastrophic! I've used the powder sprinkled on the logs for chimney maintenance on a regular basis,but have found the chimney cleaning logs work much better! I brush my chimney about 3 times during the burning season because it's so high the gases cool at the top before exiting.My place is 3 stories high but the design allows easy access to the chimney. I keep my cap polished,when I see it looking a little dull I know there's some creosote buildup happening and promply get up there and check the chimney condition!
I've tried just about everything under the sun to clean creosote off , after many years of experimenting you know what works best "castrol superclean" I was amazed at the ease and speed it works with!

 

[chargervert]

Glad to hear all is well.

 

[BeeFast]

It can be a very scary thing making a fire INSIDE your house to keep warm. A lot of people forget that and take it for granted. You're making a fire INSIDE your house. Doesn't sound good but we who burn all do it. I'm glad it was caught in time. You will still have a Merry Christmas... with a house!

 

[68gtxman]

Glad to hear this (that you caught it)! I hope that you have a Merry Christmas!

 

[moparnation74]

Glad you and your family are ok!

 

[Don Frelier]

Thank God you were able to contain it.
Our friends nearby lost their house near Thanksgiving due to a chimney fire.
I have a wood furnace and I have about three sets of pipes that I clean and replace at the outlet.
I clean the chimney regularly, sometimes once per month but it's difficult to do it in the mid winter.
We burn mountains of wood.