Just remember to make sure you all get your chimmneys swept, we swept ours before starting to use it again this season but last night we still had a chimmney fire and all those nice men in their uniform turn up with their hoses (what a shame :-*) :-[ Mrs B.
Twice a year, although with the stove now (rather than the open fire before) there's a lot less soot.
Thanks for the reminder burntout -- god what awful username under the circumstances -- hope it hasn't made too much of a mess for you .
on a plus point, a small chimney fire is the best sweeping your chimney will ever have! clears it out a treat. not been to one yet this year, but i gaurentee that every one we go to will swear blind that they had it swept
The fire brigade were superb and didn't leave too much mess at all! Phew! Really embarrassing when you have to call out your previous work colleagues! :-[ However in that situation that was least of worries We genuinely did sweep ours out a few weeks back, even tho it didn't look like it needed doing. Glad we did now! Poptop - Your right about the user name - hadn't thought that :laugh2: Everyone is safe and the house is fine so thats what matters! Just a bit of TLC needed round the rayburn! :
A chimney fire's a frightening thing - I remember we had one when I was small - it sounded like a rocket. Dad got some board and calmly covered the fireplace opening and it went out pretty quickly. I read it's not the soot that catches fire, it's the unburnt oils and whatever from unseasoned wood (pine??) and this is why you should season it. We use ours every year. Had it swept when we bought the house and again 15 years later. The second time just a carrier bag of soot to show for 15 years of fires. Maybe how well it draws makes a difference too? Ours has always been a full-on rip-roarer.
Nowadays it has to be stainless lined for building regs, I just bought a 4.5k multifule burner and need to install one. How bad is the damage?
it'll probably just be carbon build up zed, all that fine flammable dust, even when its been swept there's quite a bit up there still,
^ This is what the fire service told us too Dog, or that we had loosened something of that didn't come down, and then did, which sat on top of the inspection hatch and caught light, think if it had been further up the chimmney we would of known nothing about it as would of burnt itself out. They could see quite clearly it had been swept so that was good! We have both had a fire of some sort all our lifes and this is the first chimney fire we have experienced in our own home so thats got to say something, like you Zed, the kids were both scared. However it could of been a whole lot worse and in some ways we are grateful we have had a small one to experience and think about things and what to do in the event of one. We posted this thread as there has been a lot of talk about the use of open fires/log burners recently and just wanted people to remember the other side of things - the SAFETY! Something that can often be forgotten.
It's certainly made me think twice about having a fire in an uninsured house just before I want to sell it! No fires for me.
glad here was no serious damage and nobody was hurt xxx just unlucky i guess.... or lucky depending how you look at it x
chimney fires are much more serious than most people think, luckily they're usually quickly detected through your room filling with smoke, the noise, or neighbours telling you that you have flames shooting out of your chimney, and they're the sort of thing that are usually easily dealt with. i have however been to a few that have developed into full on house fires. how many of you actually check the soundness of the pointing on the chimney in your loft. in a lot of older buildings i have seen beams running into the chimney stack ??? be safe, don't overload your fire, and make sure you use well seasoned wood. if you use pine or sappy wood, let it season for at least a couple of years. sweep often!
