Seasonal Page - Summit Fire Department

Wood Stove Safety Tips

Think "Clean"

Have your stove inspected and cleaned annually by a National Chimney Sweep Guild Certified chimney sweep. A dirty stove can cause stove pipe fires or contribute to air pollution. Your local NCSG certified chimney sweep will diagnose your stove and recommend what it needs in order to burn cleanly and safely.
Choose the right fuel. In general, hardwood firewood (oak, hickory, juniper, ash, etc.) burns cleaner than softwood firewood (fir, pine, cedar, etc.). Burning seasoned wood will minimize creosote buildup which causes chimney fires. Creosote is the black tarry or flaky substance formed in chimneys during the wood burning process.
Seasoned wood, wood with a moisture content of less than 20%, burns much cleaner that green (higher moisture content) wood. Check with your cord wood supplier to make sure that the wood you purchase is seasoned.
Burn Smartly. Good wood stove habits can decrease fuel consumption in the home while maintaining the same level of warmth. Make sure the fire gets enough air to burn properly. Close the damper when the fire is out to keep warm room air inside.

Think "Fire Prevention"

Clear the area around the fireplace and stove pipe. Debris to close to the wood stove could cause a fire. Check the stove pipe for obstructions.
Never overload the stove with too many logs. Don't use the stove as an incinerator, and never burn garbage, Christmas trees, or piles of paper.
Keep a fire extinguisher on hand and place smoke detectors throughout the house. Test the smoke detectors and batteries regularly. See that the extinguisher is in good working order and that all family members know how to operate it.
Keep wood stacked, covered and out of doors, away from the house and off the ground. Bring in only as much as you need for one evening to prevent insects that may be in the wood from entering your home.

A different kind of fire season

Summit firefighter Buck Ashbrook has seen it all before.
He responded to a call where a home burned when the owner used a leaking can of gasoline to light his woodstove.
"The fire just followed the leaking trail of gas and exploded," he recalled.
He has seen fires spark where the fire roared up a chimney clogged from a year's worth of sooty build-up, and caught the wooden ceiling rafters.
"You can always tell a chimney fire," he said. "They light up like a Roman candle."
And he has seen what happens when manufactured logs, made of wood-pulp and pitch, are used in a fire.
"It's gets too hot," he said. "The sides of the stove will buckle out from the heat."
Last winter, Summit firefighters responded to about 35 chimney fires.
In one of those, a home on Townsend/ Winona Road was a total loss because of an improperly installed chimney.
These fires all happened from woodstoves installed incorrectly, chimneys with accumulated creosote in the pipes and carelessness with lighting fires.
But rather than facing a cold winter under paralyzing fears of one's home bursting into flames, Ashbrook recommends some simple steps to avoid disaster.
He put his hand into his own woodstove and pulled it back out. The end of his finger was coated in shiny black resin.
"See that? That's creosote," he said.
The creosote is a carbon byproduct of the wood used in wood-burning stoves. The stoves heat a home through the cast-iron body of the stove, but because they do not burn wood 100 percent efficiently, the residual carbon slowly builds up inside the stovepipe, accumulating against the sides of the chimney. Fireplaces, used more for aesthetics, do not have the danger of woodstoves because the heat does not build up as much inside.
But in stoves, much of the buildup is caused by wet, unseasoned wood. Hard woods such as oak burn clean, leaving little creosote. But softer woods, such as locally abundant pine and pinyon, will build up creosote in the pipes more often.
The danger to a home lies in the intense temperatues at which creosote burns.
"With creosote, you can have temperatures within two minutes of 2,100 degrees," said David Gerhard, owner of Roof Dancers in Flagstaff.
"The flames just get too hot and transfer heat right through the bricks and into the wood of the house," he said.
Ashbrook said people will know when their chimney has caught on fire.
"It makes a low rumble, like a jet engine," he said, much different than the popping and roar of a normal wood fire.
Woodstoves are a source of heat to many residents in Flagstaff, he said. But maintaining the woodstoves is not something everybody thinks about.
Chimney fires in east Flagstaff got to be such a problem, Summit fire stations now keep brushes and rods for people to borrow to clean out their own chimneys.
Woodstoves have also been made for mobile homes. But because mobile homes are designed to be airtight, specific stoves for mobile homes are manufactured with an underground secondary air intake.
All woodstoves should rest on a non-combustible surface, usually made of brick. An 18-inch cleared space should be maintained around the stove.
A chimney box, designed with space separating the chimney walls from the actual home, creates a pocket for cooler air to surround the contact point, preventing that potential hotspot from becoming a flashpoint.
Ashbrook recommends woodstoves be installed by professionals.
Renters face particular problems because former tenants of a newly rented home may not have cleaned out their chimney before.
Ashbrook cautions that landlords are responsible for the cleaning of their tenants' woodstoves.
"It's just like a broken toilet," he said. "They're responsible for the repairs."
His rules for a chimney fire are simple.
Close the stove door, eliminate the air supply, call 9-1-1 and go outside.
"Everybody needs to be outside," he said

Wood-burning stove safety

Here are some wood-burning stove safety tips from Buck Ashbrook: Have your wood-burning stove installed by a professional. Make certain the stove is placed on a non-combustible surface, preferably brick. Have the woodstove chimney cleaned out every three months when burning soft woods like pine or unseasoned logs. The chimney should be swept out at least once a year. Keep a clearance of 18 inches all around the woodstove. Keep the stove in good condition. Check to make certain the gaskets still provide a tight seal on the doors. When moving into a home with a woodstove, ask the landlord if the stove had recently been cleaned. If not, remind the landlord it is their responsibility to do so. If your stove has bricks on the inside, check for cracks in the mortar or in the bricks themselves. Never use manufactured logs in a woodstove. The stove's iron is not gauged for the heat a manufactured log produces.

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