Saturday, March 10, 2012

A fire truck! A chimney fire.

Sooner or later I'll find a small 4x4 fire truck like we used to use for brush fires when I was a volunteer with the NHCVFD back in the sixties. It will be in perfect condition and below $2,000.00. Maybe it will be found in a barn.
Last night my house did it's best to catch on fire. We heat with wood and the old furnace is in the basement. I was trying to get some heat out of some elm which I brought down there thinking it was oak, and I left the back damper closed and the front vent open to get the air flowing. Well it did. The flames were shooting out of the cap and the last couple of feet were red hot. I got the roof wet with the hose & cooled the pipe down until it went out. I was afraid it was going to melt and collapse on the house. Of course the wisest thing would have been to blow off an extinguisher into the pipe from the basement, but I was afraid to leave the hose. From now on I get it swept every year, not every three like the guy that installed the $3,500. SS chimney pipe said. Ill start today if I can find somebody.

6 comments:

  1. Oh you just need a good hot fire once a year to burn it out. Now the chimney is clean and you don't have to worry about it for another couple years!

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  2. You may be right Budde. It was pretty clogged up to the vertical pipe, but that one looks pretty clean as far as I can tell. It was pretty scary though. I don't think that's the best way to clean them.

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  3. Those chimney fires are scary. Its one thing I don't miss about burning wood for heat. Some guys got lucky just letting them burn out but I got into the habit of running the chimney brush through it every year to get the creosote out.

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  4. Does everyone living outside town limits get to play with fire? Never had the house catch yet, but I've missed some good chances. Did manage to light up a Studebaker truck. Good luck finding the 4x4 unit. Before the scalpers get to it.

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    1. The chimney looks really clean now! Maybe fire is the cheaper cleaning technique. I see no need to hire a sweeper seeings as how I found a brush in the basement rafters and it is clean enough anyway for at least the season.

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