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Before moving to Alaska, I owned a house with a cute little wood stove. I didn’t need it to heat the house, but I loved having a little fire and sitting by it. Having a pre-installed, mostly decorative stove differed greatly from installing our own for heating, but it taught me some things. I did a little cooking on it, and I learned the importance of maintaining its chimney.
According to the most recent numbers from the Chimney Safety Institute of America, there were more than 22,000 chimney fires in 2014. These fires can burn quickly, or smoulder slowly, and easily spread to the rest of the home. There are deaths and millions of dollars in property damages each year from these fires.
And the number one way to prevent them is simple, cleaning the chimney!
As wood burns in the stove or fireplace, it leaves behind a build up inside the chimney called creosote. This byproduct of burning can be a mixture of smoke, water vapors, gases, and unburned wood. As it rises, it cools, causing condensation. This black or brown, sticky soot then holds to the pipe walls and when enough accumulates, it can light with a spark.
The above image shows the flakey creosote that had built up in our wood stove. To use our wood stove safely, we make sure to clean it at least twice a year. This is done by climbing up on the roof and pushing a wire brush, like this one (Amazon), down the pipe. We also change the batteries in our fire and carbon monoxide alarms every six months.
Here are some pictures of a fire that happened in a friend’s chimney:
These images show pretty clearly the amount of creosote that had built up before the fire. And it actually burned so hot that it melted parts of the stove pipe! Luckily, our friend had several fire extinguishers on hand. The lesson here was if the wood stove is used every day, the chimney needs to be cleaned often!
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Prudent advice. Thank you for letting people know. I, too, heat my Alaska cabin with wood all summer (many cords of birch and spruce).
I find it alarming that your chimney could accumulate creosote that can become a fire hazard if left neglected. I have a brother who purchased a home that comes with a wood-burning furnace. I think this can convince him to seek out a chimney cleaning and repair expert when the push comes to shove.
Wow, I never knew that a chimney could end up that dirty if you ignore it for such a long time. I can bet that this has already started happening to our fireplace recently, and I should do something to prevent that from happening, or else we’ll be having dust and soot everywhere. I’ll take your advice and look for a chimney cleaner immediately so they can help us out.