Stove ran away on me (how to know if there was chimney fire)

At Your house????

 

Was Thinking....

 

Found a little more to the story...

I had tinkered with the stove a long time ago, as the primary air plate underneath was a bit loosey goosey. At first a piece to hold up the air lever, and then I had put a piece of wire secured in such a way that it tightened the plate up.

Fast forward to today, having a look underneath its revealed the piece had moved over. It gave the tighter feeling on the air rod, but wasn't holding the plate tight so more air than normal.

While that didn't cause the original problem, it hindered the slow down.

 

And now we know the rest of the story....Glad you figured it out...

 

Glad all is well....as I was reading I was thinking you were fine. Any more if I don't stay with the stove I set the timer on the microwave or alarm on my phone......too easy to get side tracked.

 

maybe I do need to come get Maple and little Saucy....

 

Personally I would avoid going near a hot stove with water. 1 cubic inch of water is like 1700 cubic inches of steam you can blow the fire/coals right out the door. One slip and you shatter the glass and all control is lost, cast iron will crack....... Just close off all the air and squeeze your but cheeks until it settles down..

 

1200 on the prob is maybe 800 on the surface (single wall) so not a problem, it was hard to keep ahead of my Summit and it's flue temps, 800 happend a few times with no problems what so ever.

 

If You have to open it, throw ashes or sand. You will smother the flame. Water is only asking for more trouble... Assuming parts of the house are not ablaze.

I frequently get my air tubes cherry red, but I have never gotten the body of the stove glowing red. Yikes.

 

Agreed. A friend at work had one a few years back and that's exactly what he says...it sounded like a jet engine. He opened the door and hit it with a 5 lb dry chemical fire extinguisher and apparently it just sucked it all in, blew it all out the top, and didn't even slow down. He then slammed the door shut and closed it up as tight as he could while his wife called the fire department. They showed up and ran a pole down it with a kind of drill on one end to spin it, and small chains on the other to bash and break all the gunk off the inside of the chimney. He said to me "Don't worry...you'll KNOW if you ever have one, and pray you don't." He's not the type of guy to over react and panic.

 

It would if you threw it on super hot cast iron, or...while less likely...steel...you throw the water on the wood. We are only talking a cup of water here.

 

saskwoodburner I hope you don't mind if I tag along.
I have always worried about a chimney fire. I figured I would chock the air inlet all the way down and hold on. What would be the proper way to handle a chimney fire? I noticed in the original post that saskwoodburner opened the door. I would of thought that would have made it worst.

 

First, keep your chimney clean. If there is no creosote you won’t have a chimney fire. Second, burn well seasoned wood and burn hot. If you don’t need much heat don’t put as much wood in the stove. Your chimney will stay cleaner. Last, if you do have one then of course shut everything down you can. There is also a product that looks like a flare. It is called Chimfex. About Chimfex® | Chimfex® chimney fire extinguishers and chimney fire suppressants for controlling chimney fires.
Put in the fire box, it will tend to starve the whole system of Oxygen. Chief

 

Tag along, fire off questions, it won't bother me in the least.

I forgot to mention stuffing a wet tea towel in the air inlet for short times, but noticed no difference. As mentioned earlier, my air inlet sliding plate was loose. With my stove, plugging the inlet won't prevent air from coming in. It can still sneak in where the primary air lever goes into the stove. Even with that plugged, air could still sneak in on the sides of the housing underneath. I suppose a guy could shore it up with stove gasket (in my case) to make it nearly air tight. Also, the air that feeds the secondaries comes through 6 holes at the rear of stove/hidden within the housing, so no way to block air to those (again, maybe if the whole works was air tight).

As for the stove door wide open, it's my belief that the excess rush of cold air blows a bunch of heat up and out the stack. It's still crazy hot, but drops temps a few hundred degrees in the flue. I've noticed this while cooking hotdogs in the stove, while cleaning ashes out, and the ever popular "make the chimney icicles fall off" game. The heat coming out of the firebox is intense though.

I will be adding a damper next year, and if I only ever use it once, it'll be worth it.

 

Thanks for the Chimfex suggestion. I will see if I any of the stores carry it when I go to the big town. Thinking about visiting an FHC friend when I go up to mom's Fri. I go by the stove store along the way.

New stove has the slide type damper and full off would not choke the fire out. The old stove, no-EPA, had a screw type adjustment. When you would screw the adjustment all the way in, the fire went out in a very short time. I was pretty sure that a chimney fire would be choked out quickly with it.
I wasn't aware that the secondaries had a separate air supply. I will have to research for my stove.
I have my chimney swept every Sept. With the old stove it was very dirty. After one season burning with the new stove, the sweep said it didn't really need it. I will still continue with annual maintenance.

 

I can only speak for the Englander 17 being set up this way. Who knows, the secondaries might pull air from within the primary air as well on my stove, but a few things tell me I'm correct in my thinking.

When I have air lever full in, it's blasting air from the front bottom of stove. When I temporarily blocked off 2 of 6 holes that are at the bottom and back, I witnessed less secondary air tube intensity, and a very neat phenomenon. Secondary jet flames from tubes not shooting straight out, but down at 30-40 degrees and long. Almost as neat to watch as northern light/ghost flames in box. But that will be another discussion to have.

 

That is so true, I'm doing the same thing now as well! I blame it on getting old...