Almost burned my house down

[Beaver]

Wednesday night I forgot to stoke the fire in the wood stove and it went out. Thursday morning I was supposed to meet a buddy at 7am to go touring but woke a bit late and was in a hurry. I built a fire and lit it but didn't have time to sit around with the wood stove door open a bit until it got burning really well. I closed the door but forgot to open the damper wide to make sure it stayed alight and got cooking.

I went skiing. Dust on crust. About 5cm (2" for y'all south of 49) on a bullet proof suncrust. A nice day for a walk but conditions were nothing to get excited about.

I arrived home to a cold house and no fire in the wood stove. I put the propane torch to it and in no time it was roaring. Had a beer and was checking out TGR when I noticed a lot of noise from the stove. I thought perhaps there was a chimney fire so I looked outside at the chimney and it looked fine, no flames shooting out the top. Back in he house I could still hear an unusual noise so I investigated further. My chimney is a 40yo block chimney with a ceramic liner, 10 years ago I put a stainless steel liner inside that because when I looked down the chimney I could see a few cracks in the ceramic liner.

I'm looking at the stove pipe where it disappears into the wall and into the block chimney and I notice the stainless liner is glowing red. WTF, that isn't supposed to happen. Thinking there was a chimney fire I tossed a cup of water on the fire and closed the door. That is a proven technique to snuff a chimney fire. The instant shot of steam snuffs the flames. Well, I could still hear the noise that was now more of a steady roar so I tried another cup of water to no effect. I went up on the roof and dumped 2 liters of water down the chimney and was rewarded with a huge plume of steam. For good measure I dumped another 2 liters of water and a bunch of snow down the chimney. Figuring it was probably out I went back inside.

Still the roaring sound coming from the chimney and still glowing red hot. WTF???!!! Back up on the roof I noticed smoke coming from between the ceramic liner and the stainless liner. I went down to the bottom of the chimney and opened the clean out hatch to see if the fire was in the base of the chimney. There was a bit of crap from the last time I cleaned the chimney but not much and it was cold. I shoveled that bit out and as I was about to close the hatch I saw an ember fall into the area I could see at the bottom of the chimney interior. I took my trusty little metal wood stove shovel and stuck it and my arm into the chimney (wearing a firefighter's glove) and struck a blockage of chimney cleanings (creosote flakes) that were on fire. I got all that shit cleaned out and killed the fire in the stove and things began to cool off.

I took the fam out for dinner because the time spent saving the house was the time I was going to cook dinner. When I got home I shone a light down the chimney and saw a chunk of the old ceramic liner had broken and fallen across the open bottom of the stainless liner partially obstructing the path to the bottom. When I cleaned the chimney it caught some of the shit that should have fallen to the bottom of the chimney. That caught fire and was burning like a motherfucker. Even after 2 hours of cooling the outer block chimney was toast warm to the touch.

I figure I'm one lucky motherfucker. Had I stoked the fire the night before as normal I may have awoken in the middle of the night to a burning house (assuming I awoke before asphyxiating). Had I taken the time to make sure the fire was cooking before I went skiing I may have arrived home to a smoking foundation.

[iceman]

Good save. I've had a house burn down on me before and it's not good as you can imagine. How did the piece of ceramic get inside the liner? Our liner goes right from the stove all the way up and comes out the top of the masonry chimney it's inside of.

[mobygrape]

quite a story! Good save.

[SkiCougar]

pussy.

we did burn our house down, you could see it from a mile away.

and years before we had the neighbor kids smoking cigarettes on top the garage and they burned it down.

next time you get a fire started, you pm me; i'll do it up right for you.

[Beaver]

The steel liner goes to a couple inches below where the stove pipe enters the old block chimney at about 5' off the floor. Where the stove pipe enters the block chimney is a metal T inside the block chimney with the bottom open for debris to fall when you clean it out. The ceramic liner goes down below that probably about 2', it is a chunk of that ceramic section that has fallen into the path of debris that falls to the cleanout. It isn't in the metal pipe and never was. I'm going to get a lead weight on a rope and drop it in there and bash it around a bit to bust that piece out. I tried to reach up from the cleanout hole but cant reach it.

[BigDaddy]

Glad you figured it out Beaver. Sounds like you averted a disaster.

Good save. I've had a house burn down on me before and it's not good as you can imagine.

Jesus.... you too? Teleee and now TC are members of that club as well.

I thought about starting a fire safety thread, since it is obviously a big danger for mags being in colder climes, etc. Especially after TC and family nearly just died. I have heat detectors in the kitchen, garage, and smokes in every other room and basement. Also keep fire extinguishers in all major rooms, as well as by the bed. (Could make a good burglar defense, too). Family has to know where to go and what to do in all scenarios.

[irul&ublo]

Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth. To thank her properly for averting the chimney fire, you should post up some high quality porn.

[BCMtnHound]

Hmm. Sounds like all the years of close association with the Sons of Freedom in the South Slocan has seeped into your subconscious. You might have an underlying guilt about your vast accumulation of material possessions and subconsciously tried to burn your house down. Might be time to convert to electrical range and heat...

Glad to hear you failed in your attempt securing entry into heaven!

[iceman]

Hestia? I heard she's dextrous as fuck.

…wait, that's not right.

BD we talked about this once before a while back, it was May 10, 1985 - I know because I watched the Celtics close out the Pistons in game 6 of the conference semifinals, turned off the game, went upstairs and opened the door to my room and it was like that move Backdraft: WHOOMPFF!! fuckin crazy shit. RAN out of there. Place burned to the ground.

If I recall yours burned the same year?

[BigDaddy]

You are right again, Ice... same year. Can't believe I forgot. Mine was in January and I ran outside... naked except for my tighty whities around 1:30 am. It was ten degrees and we all made it out safely, thanks to a neighbor pounding on the door. Even weirder, I was at that C's game in May. But with clothes on.

[Rip'nStick]

Good save Beav! Chimney fires are no joke.

My house burned down in 1987, can I still be in the club with BigDaddy and iceman? That would be swell.

[iceman]

Even weirder, I was at that C's game in May. But with clothes on.

Well I doubt they'd let you in the Garden naked.

Yeah Rip'n, it's the house burned the fuck down club, we don't care what year it was, you're in.

[Beetman]

Scary shit, you got lucky!

I had my first chimney fire a few days ago; similar setup to yours, SS liner in a ceramic lined masonry chimney. Luckily it was pretty small scale, no flames out the top just a glowing red liner. Burned for about 15 minutes then died down. Had the liner cleaned and inspected just to be safe, but they can really take a beating I've been told.

[KQ]

*shudder* House fires = scary awful crap. One of my big fears. Glad you caught it in time!

[Chugachjed]

Buddy of mine had a chimney fire. Fire department arrived in time to more or less save the place but for some ungodly reason went into the basement and found the grow op. That was a very expensive fire.

[iceman]

grrr has a story about a fire at a grow op he got called to where they had to inventory the plants for the guy's insurance claim. Definitely some advantages to having it be legal!

[mtngirl79]

Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth. To thank her properly for averting the chimney fire, you should post up some high quality porn.

Hestia is straight. She likes pictures of hot, dirty men fixing things.. or, perhaps emerging from a post fixing things shower...

Naked girls will just make her angry. She will burn all your houses down in an effort to create more dirty men fixing things... only those men will not be justly rewarded, because they were fixing the houses that they burned down... they will just be allowed to live.

[booner]

Glad you figured it out before it went bad.


PRO TIP: don't EVER knock out a "dead" bowl into a garbage can

[LT]

This is a great reminder to CHECK YOUR SMOKE DETECTOR BATTERIES and if you don't have them GET CARBON MONOXIDE MONITORS.

I can't tell you how many CO calls we run. Shocking how many instances there are of Carbon Monoxide issues in people's home.

[LT]

P.S. Glad you're ok and caught it in time. Scary stuff.

[huckbucket]

Hestia is straight. She likes pictures of hot, dirty men fixing things.. or, perhaps emerging from a post fixing things shower...

Naked girls will just make her angry. She will burn all your houses down in an effort to create more dirty men fixing things... only those men will not be justly rewarded, because they were fixing the houses that they burned down... they will just be allowed to live.

You shut your filthy mouth ...

[shirk]

Yeah Rip'n, it's the house burned the fuck down club, we don't care what year it was, you're in.

Sweet club. Our place burned down in 2009. Do we get a special patch for being in this club or hand shake maybe?

[iceman]

A little silver lapel pin in the shape of a fire extinguisher.

[HansJob]

Of all the ways to lose a home, flood, tornado, or hurricane. I think fire has got to be the worst and the saddest. Nice save Beaver.

[iceman]

Really they're pretty much equal.