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How To Safely Enjoy Your Home Fire
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Easy Tips for Starting Your Fire
Open the Damper
This is forgotten more often than most people care to admit.
Ingredients
You will need three things to start a
fire
Tinder: Crumpled
up newspaper makes the best tinder. You can also use small twigs, pine
needles, or pine cones.
Kindling: Large
twigs, small branches, and small splits of wood anywhere from 1/4" to 1"
in thickness will do. This is the most important ingredient for building
a good fire and usually the most overlooked.
Fuel: Use
only well seasoned hardwood. If you have to burn softwoods, be certain
they are well seasoned. Look for split, dry wood that has been stacked
for up to a year. Loose bark and cracks in the ends are signs of seasoned
wood.
Starting the Fire
Arrange two small to medium sized pieces
of firewood on the grate, and place some crumpled up newspaper for tinder
between the logs.
Now cover the tinder with several pieces
of kindling. Be generous with the kindling - it's the most important
element in starting your fire.
Now place two more pieces of firewood
on top of the kindling and two more at right angles to these two. Leave
some space between the logs for air circulation.
Warm Up the Flue
For fireplaces, warm up the flu by holding
a piece of burning rolled-up newspaper in the (opened) damper region for
10-15 seconds. This helps the flue establish a good draft. The
light the tinder. Within a few minutes, you should have a nice, hot,
roaring fire!
Important Do's and Don'ts
Do check the manufacturer's guidelines for your wood stove
or insert.
Do use seasoned wood.
Do use commercial fire starters if you like. The eliminate
the need for tinder and reduce the amount of kindling required.
Don't use charcoal lighter fluid or other flammable liquids.
These are extremely dangerous. (Gel fire starters are okay.)
Don't use coal in a wood stove or fireplace unless there are
specific written instructions - it will burn, but not safely.
Don't burn artificial logs in a wood stove, unless they ar specifically
designed for wood stove use. Artificial logs can dirty the chimney
much faster than regular wood, and can be hazardous in certain situations.
Don't burn treated lumber, trash, or anything other than wood
in your fireplace or wood stove.
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Valuable Trouble-Shooting Hints
Smoke problems
Is your damper open? If it is and
the smoke continues, open a nearby window a crack for a minute or two until
the fire is going well - then you can close it again.
If it just smokes when you light the
fire, in may be because the flue is cold. Did you warm the flue with
a burning rolled-up newspaper held in the damper area? (If not, that
usually works.)
If the chimney continues to smoke, call
a chimney professional. Your chimney may be clogged by animal nests
or an accumulation of soot and creosote, or have additional problems.
Chimney odors
The sour, sickly odor is the smell of
creosote. The solution is to call a chimney professional to clean your
chimney and install a chimney cap to prevent water from entering and reacting
with the creosote. Your chimney professional can also recommend a good
chimney deodorant to handle any remaining odor which has been absorbed into
the masonry.
Creosote buildup
Slow smoldering fires and/or the use
of unseasoned wood can create "cool" smoke and weak draft. Under these
conditions the smoke condenses and sticks to the chimney's interior, forming
highly flammable creosote. Read the section on "Efficient Burning Techniques"
for the solution to this problem.
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Efficient Burning Techniques
The key
is to burn small, hot fires, using hardwood - that will minimize creosote
accumulation and maximize heat output.
Keep fires
burning hot with flames, not smoldering with alot of smoke.
Be careful
not to add too much firewood. In a fireplace, keep the top of the flame
visible below the fireplace opening. In a wood stove, keep the flames
confined to the wood stove itself.
With glass
doors, keep the doors wide open
with the screen closed for a good half hour after starting the fire.
When you see the fire is burning well, close the doors and set any draft
controls.
Its better
to add smaller loads more often than to cram in alot of wood trying to get
all day burn.
When you
are ready to put out a fire, separate the logs by moving then to the side
of the fireplace or stand them on end in the back of the fireplace.
Close the screen or glass doors tightly, but don't close the damper until
you're sure the fire and coals are completely out.
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Avoiding Chimney Fires
Creosote is the main cause of chimney
fires
A buildup of creosote is highly combustible
and can result in a chimney fire. To minimize creosote:
Burn only seasoned woods.
Do not burn trash in a fireplace or woodstove.
Don't allow th
fire to smolder
Contact your chimney
professional to clean your chimney regularly
What to do if you have a chimney
fire
Get everyone out of the house.
Call the fire department.
Don't close the damper. If you have a fireplace with glass
doors, close the doors and the vents. If you have a woodstove, close
the doors and the air inlets.
If flames are visible at the chimney top, hose down the roof but
not the chimney. Spraying water on a hot chimney will very likely damage
it.
Call a chimney professional before using it again. Even
a small chimney fire can damage the chimney, making it unsafe to use.
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