Found out creosote buildup can actually catch fire at like 450 degrees...

I was reading through some old trade journals my mentor gave me last night. One article said a typical chimney fire starts way lower than I thought. I always figured it had to be blazing hot but nope, just a normal day burning seasoned oak can hit that temp if the coating is thick enough. Scared me straight about skipping the mid-season scrape. Any of you guys ever seen a flue fire up close?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordanblack1mo ago

My cousin's a volunteer firefighter and he showed me pictures once from a call where a chimney fire melted the whole chase. Thing is, the homeowners said they'd been burning small fires all winter, nothing crazy. It's like how you don't notice the slow creep of rust on your truck frame until the brake line snaps. The little neglects add up into one big disaster. Same with letting leaves pile up around the foundation or ignoring that small oil leak in the driveway. One day it's nothing, next day it's a new roof or worse.

wesley1811mo ago

That truck frame rust analogy hit me hard because it's exactly how everything works. I've seen neighbors pave over a tiny crack in their driveway and three winters later it's a whole new slab because water got underneath and froze. Same with people who skip cleaning their gutters for one season, then suddenly they're dealing with basement flooding from ice dams. It's like the universe has this slow motion domino effect that only speeds up when you aren't paying attention. Makes you wonder what little thing you're ignoring right now that's gonna bite you in six months.

river_allen1mo ago

Hold up though, is a chimney fire really that common? I feel like people freak out about this stuff but most houses don't just randomly catch fire from a few logs. @wesley181 I get your point about the truck frame but that's more of a mechanical thing with metal, not really the same as a house. Like, I've had leaves piled up against my foundation for years and nothing happened. Sometimes a small oil leak is just a small oil leak and you fix it when you get around to it. Not saying neglect is good but maybe we're all just worrying too much about worst case scenarios.