Get ready for Santa Get ready for Santa (December 24, 2004)

Fire officials suggest cleaning chimneys often

by Tony Burchyns

'Tis the season for kindling the old hearth, but chances are not every chimney is ready for the occasion.

The result could be an angry flue fire that shoots flames 10 feet high, putting the whole house in danger, fire officials said.

Six times this year -- once in October and five times before mid March -- chimney fires have broken out in Palo Alto homes and businesses, according to the Palo Alto Fire Department.

In all cases, luckily for the residents and businesses involved, the smoky mishaps were confined to the chimneys that bore them.

But things could have been much worse, had there been cracks leading to attics or too many sparks landing on dry rooftops, Stanford University fire inspector David Conrod said.

"This is why you need a chimney sweep, and you need it annually," he said, adding that a recent chimney fire set off a smoke detector in a Stanford dormitory, but was squelched before spreading too far.

Incoming Palo Alto Fire Chief Nick Marinaro concurred.

"In my experience, most chimney fires are the result of a build up of creosote -- they just haven't been cleaned," he said.

Creosote is the sticky tar that builds up in chimney flues when wood is burned, Marinaro said, especially resinous wood such as pine.

He suggested burning cleaner logs. "You should use oak or walnut," he said. "It's more solid and clean."

Conrod offered additional pointers: Keep a fire extinguisher nearby, close the vents if a flue fire erupts and keep a mesh or glass screen in front of the hearth.

"The other thing is, don't build a big roaring fire," he said. "Keep them two thirds the height of the hearth."

He said it's also important to have spark arresters -- mesh-like cages -- installed on chimney tops to keep embers from curling onto roofs or trees. Smoldering material can drift for a quarter mile, he said, especially when paper or trash is burned.

Three victims of local chimney fires said flames ignited without warning.

"I heard a 'whoosh,' and when I went outside to my neighbor's house I saw black smoke," said Charlotte Arbes of Rosewood Drive in Palo Alto, whose flue caught fire in February when she was using her wood-burning stove.

The chimney hadn't been cleaned in three years, she said, and flames were rising from it by the time the fire department arrived.

A Ross Road resident, who asked not to be named, said embers from a dying fire exploded unexpectedly in 1999 as he and his wife were preparing for bed.

"We heard a puff -- like a small explosion -- and we got to thinking, and looking around, and discovered it was a flue fire," the man said.

After closing the damper, he called the fire department, which arrived on the scene to find flames lapping from the chimney. The accident caused an estimated $2,500 in damage, according to an archived fire report.

A similar incident took place two years ago at MacArthur Park Restaurant on University Avenue, where employees were oblivious to flames shooting from the building's large chimney until people across the street at the Caltrain station intervened, said restaurant manager Kerry Pommes.

"We evacuated the restaurant, and the fire department went up on the roof and hosed down the fireplace," Pommes said, adding that the hose bearers did a good job protecting the decor of the dining room.

Greg Wooten, the owner of ABA Chimney Services in Daly City, said chimney flues should be cleaned after three-fourths of a cord of wood (96 cubic feet) has been burned, or once an eighth of an inch of soot has accumulated.

In addition, he said those shopping for a new home should ask to have fireplaces inspected and tested if they plan to use them in the winter.

"There're a lot of people buying houses where the fireplaces are broken. They light a fire at Thanksgiving, and the house fills with smoke," he said.

Newly built homes in Palo Alto won't have that problem because of a city planning code that took effect in 2000 banning the construction of traditional fireplaces, said Palo Alto's chief building official Fred Herman.

Although the fireplace law aims to control air pollution more than anything else, Herman said it should also reduce the same kind of disasters that took place after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

"There were quite a few fires in the Bay Area after the quake -- fires in attics," he said, that resulted from shaken and cracked chimneys.

Neither the fire department nor the planning department inspects for chimney cracks, Marinaro and Herman said, but they recommended licensed chimney maintenance professionals for the job.
Gas fires burn cleaner

Gas is one way to go for avoiding yearly chimney cleanings and the threat of house fires, flue-fire victims said.

Gas or pellet-burning stoves generate more heat with less air pollution than traditional fireplaces, said Scott Carter, the manager of Stove Works in Mountain View.

"A big open fire has no heat efficiency," he said. "It could be recycling all the air in the house every couple of minutes."

Even with a proper damper, fireplaces function as the primary source of heat loss in most homes, he said.

On the other hand, metal stoves inserted into fireplaces are 70 to 80 percent heat efficient, he said, and require less cleaning.
-- Tony Burchyns

E-mail a friend a link to this story.