A coworker heated her home with a pellet stove IIRC, and had the ash bin outside too close to the side of her house and destroyed her house (lucky to escape alive situation) when the ashes ignited the siding and soon the whole house was engulfed in flames.
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Turkey fryers all over say, “hold my beer!”
I think I discussed my Christmas Rib Roasts elsewhere, but that grill was (IMO) too close to the house and the fat dripped, on fire, under the flames, set some plastic items on fire in the storage area below. My wife’s uncle’s house – he is a retired fire chief – took it in stride.
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Yikes!
The people next door to bridge friends just had a house fire, apparently from the chimney getting too hot when they had a fire in the fireplace. But the fire in the wall started after they put out the fire in the fireplace (after they went to bed.) I have to think something was lost in translation.
They got out okay, and got their cat out. But they’d just purchased the house, and she’s pregnant, it’s it’s just a really bad situation.
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Huh, yeah, was there a flaw in the chimney maybe?
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Either that or whatever they were burning is an unusually hot incendiary. Back in South Africa when I was a kid tyres and other materials were used and there were always mishaps.
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Other potential source is someone previously burned something that didn’t burn cleanly, and built up flammable residue in the chimney, which later ignited. One doesn’t burn pine wood or an entire christmas tree, needles and all, in an inside fireplace for this reason. Always hire a chimney sweep, especially after purchasing an existing house with a working fireplace.
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Are they those sooty 12 year old kids with cockney accents?
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They had just remodeled the house. It’s possible they replaced something non-flammable with something flammable during that process. It seems weird to miss cleaning the chimney, but that’s possible, too.
I hear he’s still available.
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Yes, or didn’t leave appropriate clearance.
I think it’s spelled “flue.”
Ooh, that would be easy. I converted an unused wood fireplace to gas two years ago, and my contractor was super concerned about having enough clearance. We ended up with about twice as much as the gas insert said it needed. Despite that ending up being pricey, I’m okay with that. We got a very pretty feature (a patch of tile above the fireplace) and i really don’t want to be starting fires outside the fireplace.
If there was a problem with the flue it would get very smoky very fast I would think, so I doubt that was the problem.
How does your pilot light vent? My flue is propped half-open 24/7/365 to vent the pilot light and that feels like it’s wasting a lot of my heat when the fireplace is not in use. I’ve never had a gas insert before and I’m contemplating taking it out just so I can close the flue and also occasionally have a fire.
My gas fireplace is basically sealed, with two pipes in the chimney, one for intake and the other for exhaust. It doesn’t have a flue to close. But it also doesn’t leak much air.
Back when i had a stove and a whole-apartment space heater that each had gas pilot lights, they didn’t have a dedicated vent, they just “vented” into the house.
Actually, that’s true of my 1959 gas furnace in the basement, too. In fact, it vents everything into the basement, not just the pilot light, but when it burns gas to heat the hot water that heats the house. The contractor who redid the basement wanted to install ventilation for it, but it’s too old to talk to the modern gadget that opens and closes the pipe, so that’s not practical. We have a carbon monoxide meter not too far away, and friends have brought carbon dioxide readers to my house. The CO2 levels get pretty high when the basement is crammed with people, but it’s close to outdoor levels when guests first arrive. So i don’t think the gas furnace is a significant problem.
You can probably just close your flue. Although that doesn’t allow you to burn wood.
They probably do.
This was an interesting read:
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Yeah, my other question is if I need to open the flue to run the gas fire insert or if the halfway that it’s propped open anyway is good enough. Seems like halfway might be sufficient. All the way would be needed for wood, but gas is cleaner burning, so I assume doesn’t need as much exhaust. But I don’t want to find out I’m wrong by asphyxiating.
I thought my chimney guy abandoned me, but he just reached back out so hopefully we’ll figure something out. Good to know your setup.
To be clear, i would certainly open the flu when you have a fire in the fire place. But i bet you don’t need it for just the pilot light.
You ought to have CO monitors, of course.
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