Did I just have a chimney fire...

Picture #3 is the clean out cap after the incident.

Picture #4 is the same stuff, dumped into an ash bucket.

I think what my issue was/ is... My cat is at the end of its life. I've had to burn more than I normally do since our natural gas furnace needs repair and the cat is definitely lagging and stalling at times. I need to get the fire hotter to get the cat going, and I think when I turn it down at night the cat is not burning all of the uncombusted smoke, causing more than normal build up in my pipe.

I let the stove run away yesterday and I think it may have lit some of the build up off and caused a small quick chimney fire. My class A was hot to the touch, which it is never been before....

Ordered a new cat last night from Woodstock.

 

Two good indicators of a chimney fire are flames shooting from the top of the chimney and inside it sounds like a plane taking off. Chimney fires need lots of air.

 

I was thinking the same thing, and I did not see nor hear either of them... Still had some interesting increase in the heat inside the Class A's chimney as It is usually warm at the hottest with a good fire going in the stove. When this "incident" happened I could not touch the exterior of my class A for more than a second due to the heat coming off of it...

Still think my overfire ignited what little buildup I had in the chimney but it was not a full on raging chimney fire.

 

Yes; another aspect of burning good dry wood; we don't have to worry as much about a chimney fire because there is little creosote for a chimney fire.

 

Small chimney fires don't always burn everything. We have black pipe going to the chimney and you can hear it creak and pop when she gets goin with the bypass open. If there is creosote in the pipe, you will hear that tinkling sound as it sort of burns and flakes off. When it lights up and actually burns out it sounds like a jet engine in the pipe. We just swept the chimney today and there was not much there, just a thin glaze and a few pieces in the corners. We have drier wood this year and should be several years ahead now, so it will be better from here on out.

 

Consider it the "hands free chimney cleaning method"


In all seriousness I had something similar happen a few years ago with a load full of honey locust. I've learned that stuff is pretty stubborn to start on it's own but once it gets up to temp it can have a tendency to just take off. Basically that's what happened with me, it took off and I was upstairs in my room, happened to look out at the chimney and saw an orange ball dancing around near the cap. Ran downstairs, cut the air, went outside and watched a huge puff of smoke blow out and that was it. Chimney was spotless the next day.

It seems like a chimney fire can be started by two different ways, one being the typical overly built up creosote "real" chimney fire, and the other just being like what you and I likely had happen which is an overfire, and my guess is the flames get so strong in the stove box they literally just start shooting up the chimney, and ignite what little creosote is actually there to burn off. I guess a chimney fire is a chimney fire, but my point is one from having a dirty/clogged chimney is going to be far worse, I would think.

 

I agree with this whole heartedly. Good explanation and sounds exactly like my experience. Best to keep focused on what is going on with the stove at that moment and not let it get away from you. Also keep the chimney clean and burn dry wood, which was not truly the issue in my case.

 

I'll get the same <sounds> coming from the horizontal section of pipe having a up, over and up chimney. The 'creosote' tends to accumulate in the horizontal section. The buildup makes all manner of creaking and crackling sounds as it heats up especially later in the year as the buildup slowly grows. Was worse when trying to push the stove to the limits of how low it could burn, not wanting the fire to go out.
Now that I tend towards batch burning when needed, burning more pine, often for short batch burns, I don't get anywhere near the buildup in that horizontal section of pipe.
I've never had a big blob of creosote in the chimney at the T like I've seen with some people who burn less than optimal wood. Those have also been outside chimneys where the T is outside.