Chimney Chains

[ChiefKN]

Nothing like 10 foot flame length from the top of a chimney....

In this order, generally is what we will use.

Chimnex flare (never seems to work on its own)

Chain

Dry Chem up the flue with PPV going

A little bit of "Cold Fire"... google it, nice stuff.


A neighboring department has this special nozzle "Snuffer Kit" they drop down the chimney that puts out a very fine spray. I'm dubious...

[Chief_Roy]

Nothing like 10 foot flame length from the top of a chimney....

In this order, generally is what we will use.

Chimnex flare (never seems to work on its own)

Chain

Dry Chem up the flue with PPV going

A little bit of "Cold Fire"... google it, nice stuff.


A neighboring department has this special nozzle "Snuffer Kit" they drop down the chimney that puts out a very fine spray. I'm dubious...

Yeah, we had the snuffer too. I thought it worked good, but we tried to avoid using it because of the fear of cracking the mortar. 9 times out of 10 the old chimney bombs seemed to work just fine.

I like the dry chem up the flu idea, never tried that on the job. I did, however, have a chimney fire at my own house years ago. I would have rather eaten glass than to call the guys at the station, so I climbed up on the roof and dumped a dry chem down the chimney. Not a good idea. Put the fire out, but fogged the house up with so much yellow powder that we were tasting it for weeks. Yeah, I know, close the damper right?

[snowball]

We've always had success throwing a pitcher of water on the fire, then as soon as white smoke is seen, cover the flue. I should mention that the fireplace has some way to close up the front.

We don't get that many.

[Dickey]

We have an 8" section of old rail road track attached to a chain. Yes, it's home made. When I first started we had chimney fires almost once a week in the winter time but over the last 20 years, burning wood became less popular. Now, with rising fuel costs, they are coming back. We haven't had any in several years but our neighbors are beginning to see an increase in chimney fires.

First we go to the furnace and put the fire out using dry chem and usually that takes care of the chimney. If that doesn't work, then we used to use chimney bombs of baking soda. As a last resort, we would drop the chain down.

I bet we haven't dropped a chain in over 10 years. Heck, we don't even have the bombs pre-made anymore.

[JT_Fire_2000]

Chimney fires are a pain. The dry chem bombs seem to be successfull about half the time. I've actually seen some success with a dry chem extinguisher UP the chimney immediately followed by a CO2. Wasn't a bad fire, but seemed to be effective. We do not use chimney chains at all.

[hwoods]

And...........

My late Father and a couple of other guys made their own "Chimney" nozzle many years ago. Dad brazed a Female Booster hose coupling to a 2 ft. long piece of 1 inch pipe. A cap was put on the other end, and some very small holes were drilled in the pipe. When charged to 150 psi, you'd get a number of pinpoint streams around the pipe. This would create some steam and also "Cut" the creosote in the Flue liner so it would fall into the Firebox......... They made the first one in the 1940s, and a couple more later on. The darned things worked good too.........

[Leeland]

We still have them, though it has been a while since I have used one. With the way the weather is going here, I'm sure we will be running a few chimney fires pretty soon.