What? the flue is dirty?

[Mad Professor]

Friend who didn't clean the flue, and when he did, he told the sweep not to bother taking the debris out of the cleanout.

Full size traditional stone and brick fireplace/chimney, cleanout could hold about a 1/2 yard, it was backed up to the smokebox when the fun began. Cleanout directly below the flue in smokebox box, door for cleanout outside of house (see 1st pic).

There was no fire at the cleanout door, until the firemen shoveled out a few wheelbarrows worth of creosote, then the fun began in earnest, as a hell of draft from the fire, cleaned out the flue quite well! I think they burned through 2 or 3 shovels in the process.

The chimney cap melted, then the top of the chimney, looked like the exhaust from a rocket or volcanic eruption. Would have lost the house if not for the FD.

I just found these pictures from an old computer, I 'll download some more if anyone finds these entertaining?




I was next door and had free entertainment for a couple of hours.

 

[Little Al]

One problem extra to that type of fire is red hot soot/gunge balls being fired out the top of flue/chimney to land around the property If the area they land is dry & combustible a series of fires could start & concentration on the flue /building mean the blocked from view side of the building could start & get out of hand fires before they are discovered

 

[bear1998]

You can't fix stupid........

 

[Mad Professor]

One problem extra to that type of fire is red hot soot/gunge balls being fired out the top of flue/chimney to land around the property If the area they land is dry & combustible a series of fires could start & concentration on the flue /building mean the blocked from view side of the building could start & get out of hand fires before they are discovered

The FD did a great job. There were about 15 total personal, with two full size pumper trucks, and the smaller 4WD used from remote/brush fires, on the other side of the house. When the fire took off the pumper trucks were keeping the roof wet and hitting any flaming meteors that were landing on the roof/yard. All the men on roof came down until things burned down. The fire got so hot it cracked the huge chimney in a few spots but not so bad that any flames escaped outside or in the house. The chimney had to be rebuilt and inspected before it could be used again. The house escaped damage besides that, and some smoke damage inside.

I'll see if I can find some more pictures

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Why didn't they cut the oxygen off. Close the bottom and top. Glad they saved the house. Had a fire at my home before, fire department came, came without one important item. WATER!

 

[Mad Professor]

Why didn't they cut the oxygen off. Close the bottom and top. Glad they saved the house. Had a fire at my home before, fire department came, came without one important item. WATER!

I don't think there was an easy way to do so. The hearth on the other side is huge and there was no way you'd be able to get at the damper with the fire.

The cleanout initially was totally quiet when they opened the door, but there was 2-3 feet of cerosote above the door level, above that was a pool of burning liquid cerosote.

They did have plenty of water, but guess what? NO SHOVELS! I took those shovels out of a barn, and they burnt most of them up. LOL, wood handles hold up better than the plastic ones. I'd think standard equip on a truck would be some shovels.

 

[homemade]

Water will certainly ruin a clay lined chimney. And chances are, if the homeowner never sweep/clean there chimney, I doubt it was ever inspected for cracks. So when the creosote does light up, the wood framing is at high risk for igniting.

That being said, it’s a dry chem extinguisher up from the clean out to put out the fire. Then run an assortment of sweeps and chains to nock all the crap down and shovel it outside. Where the water is waiting.

 

[ironman_gq]

+1 on the dry chemical extinguisher from the bottom, my brother had a chimney fire and that snuffed it out quick. Water is bad news on hot clay tile liners.