Morning everyone. I've got a question about fireplaces, smoke, and chimney fires.
We have a fireplace in our home, and have it cleaned annually. The chimney sweep always gives us great reviews on the condition of the firebox and flu, and we rarely have much buildup. Our last cleaning was sometime last spring. Since then we have gone through approximately 2 1/2 ricks of wood. I started up a fire a couple weeks ago and there was quite a bit of smoke billowing from the chimney. Way more than normal. Due to odd wind patterns, the smoke was blown town and towards the street, and someone called the fire department. I caught a police officer who responded before the fire department got there and had them cancel the call, as I was 99.9% sure it was not an issue. well, i let the fire burn itself out just in case, and after about 10 minutes the smoke dissapated (never had smoke in the house, only out the chimney) and for the remainder of the fire it was the typical small amount of smoke coming from the chimney.
I just wanted to have you guys double check my logic. It was a new load of wood, and the smoke was a problem within the first 10 minutes of lighting the fire, while the kindling was still burning and the main logs had just begun to burn. There was no wooshing noise, and since it was within the first 10 minutes of the fire and the flue had not even begun to heat up yet, I figure it was just some damp wood. Does that sound about right? I have looked up the chimney and from what I could see there is not much build up. There's a little sparatic dust on the walls, but it's a gray dust color, not the black that i've seen in pictures.
So does my reasoning sound correct? I didnt want to have to call the sweep until we were finished burning for this season, but paranoia is making me second guess it.
We have a fireplace in our home, and have it cleaned annually. The chimney sweep always gives us great reviews on the condition of the firebox and flu, and we rarely have much buildup. Our last cleaning was sometime last spring. Since then we have gone through approximately 2 1/2 ricks of wood. I started up a fire a couple weeks ago and there was quite a bit of smoke billowing from the chimney. Way more than normal. Due to odd wind patterns, the smoke was blown town and towards the street, and someone called the fire department. I caught a police officer who responded before the fire department got there and had them cancel the call, as I was 99.9% sure it was not an issue. well, i let the fire burn itself out just in case, and after about 10 minutes the smoke dissapated (never had smoke in the house, only out the chimney) and for the remainder of the fire it was the typical small amount of smoke coming from the chimney.
I just wanted to have you guys double check my logic. It was a new load of wood, and the smoke was a problem within the first 10 minutes of lighting the fire, while the kindling was still burning and the main logs had just begun to burn. There was no wooshing noise, and since it was within the first 10 minutes of the fire and the flue had not even begun to heat up yet, I figure it was just some damp wood. Does that sound about right? I have looked up the chimney and from what I could see there is not much build up. There's a little sparatic dust on the walls, but it's a gray dust color, not the black that i've seen in pictures.
So does my reasoning sound correct? I didnt want to have to call the sweep until we were finished burning for this season, but paranoia is making me second guess it.