This old cabin has been up here since the late 60's but it took a major hit the other night when the fireplace must have gotten too hot starting a blaze. I talked to the owner today and he didn't think the chimney had a fire, just the fireplace enclosure. He said he caught the Fire himself and emptied two extinguishers. Luckily no one was hurt or killed!
They put a lot of heat out the chimney, that's for sure. Glad they caught that fire before it did more damage than that.
They won't heat the place much but when I was building this house I had no clue so I went and spent $1400 on a big wood burning fireplace for the great room. It sat here while I built the home for years until I put it in a free to take Craigs List ad and gave it away never used. I now heat the place with a Drolet wood stove.
I heated a beach house with one in 82 or 83 when natural gas prices "skyrocketed". With pallets. Course it was made of bricks and clay not metal.
My FP is brick, and has a fan to blow heat from the hollow racks. It's still a far far cry from 78+% efficiency than good inserts produce.
We bought a Baker FPI off craigslist 8 years ago for $300. We we're going to use it as a stand alone wood stove but ended up finding a free "Hotblast" wood furnace in a house that was being demolished. All we had to do as get it out, so we stored the insert in the shed. Three years ago we moved and left the furnace. The new house had a stone fireplace. When we moved, I installed the insert before we were fully in the house. I was astonished at the length of burns we get with this thing. I fill it up around 11:00 and it's still blowing heat 12 hours later. Two loads a day. $300 well spent.
Wisc, if that guy put the fire out, or "under control", with two fire extinguishers, he should quit whatever he does for a living and start offering advanced fire suppression classes! Glad he was aware and not sleeping. There was a fire here with the cause listed as, and I quote, "the wood stove caught fire". I think I know what they were trying to say, but they sure didn't say it.
