My wife, kids and I were sitting down by the fireplace last night watching a movie. I threw a couple more logs on the fire. As usual, it flamed up. A few minutes later we heard a loud woosh with a sustained turbine sound. I ran outiside to look at the chimney and indeed it was ON FIRE. 3 or 4 foot flames were shooting out the top and the metal cap on top was glowing bright orange.

I yelled at her that it was indeed on fire. She got the kids out of the house first. I decided to take the burning logs out of the fireplace and throw them out in the yard so that I could shut the flue (spelling?). Next thing I know she is taking the cover off the Shelby and pulling it out of the garage to take it to the neighbors house. Not only that, but, when I got in it later to pull it back in, I found the files of original paperwork including build sheets and other non-replaceables lying in the front seat. She had grabbed them as she went by them on her way to grab the keys.

Thankfully shutting the flue stopped air flow up the chimney and choked the fire out before the fire dept got there. They checked everything out and no damage was done. Just a little smokey smell in the house.

Just wanted to share my story and praise my wife for taking care of my most prized possessions - Her, the kids and my Shelby (not that people are possessions, you know what I mean).

Thanks for listening.

 

yes she does rock...

 

Good news, not the way to start a new year around here!

 

Wow, crazy.

I'm always afraid of a chimney fire. Out of curiosity, when was the last time you had it cleaned and how often do you burn?

 

Glad everything turned out OK

NOW get that chimney cleaned you obviously have a large amount of creosote built up in it and that is what caught fire most likely.

Creosote and chimney fires
Creosote has fairly high ignition temperature, and most wood stoves utilizing natural air convection do not have a high enough combustion temperature to ignite the vapors. Consequently cresote just vaporizes from the burning wood, floats up the exhaust pipe with other exhaust gases, and then condenses onto the cool interior lining of the chimney. Burning a large hot fire helps prevent creosote buildup that could lead to a chimney fire because the continued heat output from the fire eventually warms up the lining of the chinmey sufficiently to revaporize the deposited creosote.

 

I clean it every other year (which is a lot more than most). It has been over a year since last cleaned. In other words, last season and the beginning of this season have been burned since last clean. I probably have 15-20 fires a year. I have had 4 this year so far.

I usually do burn hot fires and for several hours when I do. I did burn a short fire the last time (very unusual for me to do that) and this one was just getting rolling (a little over an hour into it).

 

Thank God you and your family are alright!!

Saving kids, car, paperwork - seems like it may be time to take the wife wherever she wants to go for dinner for all of "2008"

 

Maybe one of those chimney cleaner logs every now and then. Glad to hear everything is okay.

 

Thats an awesome wife you have there. My EX-wife would have done the opposite and hid the keys from me while my car burned, she wasnt a nice women.

Rob

 

That's awesome that you and your family (and your Shelby..and your house too!) are okay. To be able to have something like that happen and walk away with no harm done. Brings you and your family closer together.

Glad everything worked out in probably the best possible way it could have.

Ok, now that that's over....Happy New Year!

 

Glad to hear everything turned out ok.

 

Wow! You have 2 hell of a wife!!

 

 

Wow...you are indeed a blessed man. We have 2 fireplaces and I put gas logs in one and won't burn the other for just what happened to you. Back in 1985 we built a new home. In the winter of 86-87 our neighbors lost the end of their 1 1/2 year old house to a chimmey fire. Scared me to death ever since.
Scott

 

Wow ...your wife is awesome!!!

we burn a fire constantly, keeps our oil bill down from $1100 to about $600

 

Story with a happy ending. Good news to start out the new year. Sorry about the smoke though ~

 

I was a FireFighter for over 14 years and the best and fastest way to put out a Chimmey fire was to open the nearest outside door to the fireplace to get a good air flow going and spray a dry Chemical Fire extinguisher at the base of the flue, the air flow with the Dry Chem. should be sucked up into the chimmey and put out the fire, safety remove the burning logs, and then clean the chimmey before restarting a fire. If you are good at using a Dry Chem Extinguisher, you don't even make any mess to clean up. Never let a Fire Dept spray water down the Chimmey as this will destroy the inner liner bricks. Also have the Fire Dept check for hot spots in case there was a cracked liner. Many Fire Depts have a device that will check for temp differents in the walls, attics, garage etc.

 

As a current FF we use a few small snow ***** down the chimney once the fire is out and we use tarps etc...to keep rich peoples carpet clean

Glad to hear you, kids, wifey, and shelby got out safely

 

Better you lose the inner liner bricks than the whole house. If all you have is water...you use it.

 

....Just wanted to share my story and praise my wife for taking care of my most prized possessions - Her, the kids and my Shelby (not that people are possessions, you know what I mean).

Ummm, shouldn't that be "our" Shelby?

Glad to hear everything worked out. My wife is awesome too. She understands my obscession, oftentimes called "car crazy" and has stuck with me for almost 24 years. In fact, it was only last month that she said, ".... why don't you just buy one (GT500)?" Well, that's all it took. Located and bought one within two weeks. It's now "ours" ...