Chimney Fire Safety and Prevention Tips

1/29/2019 (Permalink)

A safe, happy fireplace!

We all love enjoying the fireplace in the winter time… but do you know about chimney fire safety? There are several ways to tell if you are having a chimney fire. Often a big giveaway can be the noise your chimney/ fireplace is making. Ideally, you want your fire to make a light crackling sound; if the fire in your chimney/ fireplace is making an alarmingly loud sound you may be having a chimney fire.

 There are two types of chimney fires: Free Burning and Slow Burning.

• Slow Burning Chimney Fires aren’t as loud as Free Burning fires. Sometimes they can even be undetectable. As the name suggests, Slow Burning fires burn slow at high temperatures. Always be sure to check that flames or abnormal amounts of smoke are not coming out of your chimney top.
• Free Burning Chimney Fires are extremely loud. They have been said to sound like a train or even an airplane and you will most likely have large amounts of flames and smoke coming out of your chimney top.

Prevention is extremely important when it comes to fire safety. Here are some tips to keep in mind to prevent chimney fires this season:

1. Never leave a fire unattended.
2. Never use gasoline or kerosene to start a fire.
3. Burn larger logs instead of smaller logs if possible.
4. Always try to use dry kindling, newspaper, etc. to start your fires
5. Clean your chimney regularly, as well as making sure you get regular chimney inspections.

Always remember:

In the case of any fire, always get out of the house safely and call 911 first.

In the immediate after event of a fire, SERVPRO® of Plymouth/Wareham takes care of the entire fire restoration process to make it "Like it never even happened."

If you have fire or soot damage in your home or commercial property, call (508) 746-9500