Loading ...About 50 years ago I began my career at a remote research facility surrounded by hundreds of miles of spruce forests . My ‘tech’ was from the big city , brought his girlfriend to live with him in a rented bungalow and set up housekeeping . To save money they bought a wood stove and fuelled it with spruce gathered from the surrounding woods . Several times he was warned by old-timers about the dangers of a creosote chimney fire unless they used a mix of hardwoods along with the resin-filled spruce or added a compound to the firebox which helped to reduce the buildup of tars . One morning after a particularly cold night they built a roaring fire in the kitchen stove to warm the place up quickly before leaving for work . As they sat having breakfast , they heard a new sound – a roar from the metal stovepipe leading through the kitchen wall to the outside . Attempts to control the draft damper were unsuccessful and the stovepipe began to turn cherry red , then orange , yellow and finally almost white hot as the pitch of the roar increased in volume . Fortunately , the hole surrounding the stovepipe was large and metal collars had been intalled inside and out to keep the stovepipe centered in the hole . ( The house was wood frame contruction and if that wall had caught fire , would have gone up in minutes ). There was a lot of sweating in that little kitchen for the next while as the creosote was burned off and finally burned itself out .
Lesson learned !