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Permalink Reply by Tony P on July 23, 2010 at 4:20am

As long as it wasn't fastened tight, so that it could open easily? Sounds like it might work.

A method I was taught that can be tried if the fire in the hearth is still going. Throw a large mug of water over the fire, with a good enough fire it's supposed to turn into steam that goes straight up the chimney to extinguishes the fire. I've never had to try it, but the man who told me was the most experienced structure fire trainer I've met.

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Mancini on July 23, 2010 at 9:04am

Dry chem. powder in zip lock bags stored in a sealed bucket, throw two down the chimney, it works well!

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Permalink Reply by Brian Mackie on July 23, 2010 at 9:15am

Agreed!
And this way, at least you will be sure that you won't bust the chimney rendering it useless, which would happen (likely) if water was put on hot brick. ( I assume it is a brick chimney). Of course, when it comes to chimney fires, if the owner doesn't take the time to clean it, maybe it is best to ensure it won't happen again by using water. BUT, customer service/relations is important in our business too.

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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on July 23, 2010 at 9:21am

Yep,

Dried chem, an IV bag is still a liquid and still has potential to crack the flue.

A chimney fire is the wrong flue for an IV bag, an IV should be used for the seasonal flu that tends to accompany the cold season. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on July 23, 2010 at 9:34am

In the time it takes to ladder the roof, get to the chimney, remove the chimney cap and drop anything down it I will have already put at least one chimney flare into the fireplace (or wood stove).

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Permalink Reply by Brian Mackie on July 23, 2010 at 9:44am

Yah Jack, I remember we used to ladder the roof, and run a fricken brush down the damn thing.. until one time when the chief finally got tough (or smarter) and decided that we were NOT going to be used as chimney cleaners anymore. We would simply give a quick shot or two of our dry chem. extinguisher up from the firebox (after we unloaded it into the back yard) and that usually did the trick. Messy a bit, with the down draft, power in the living room was never a nice sight, but the owners never had a second fire.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Meadows on July 23, 2010 at 11:35am

We use dry chem in grocery bags. Grocery bags are cheaper and thinner than zip-lock bags and work well with much less mess. I've read a little about chimney flares but I've not had the chance to use them plus we've had more than a few chimney fires from coal and wood stoves that make the flares inpractical due to lack of access to the chimney.

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Permalink Reply by Derek R. on July 23, 2010 at 4:34pm

Thanks Jack, I haven't heard of chimney flares until now. Just looked them up and have to say that it would be time-saving indeed.

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Permalink Reply by John on July 24, 2010 at 7:06pm

Glad I checked this thread out....Now I have a few ideas to bring up to our officers about chimney fires.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on July 24, 2010 at 8:47pm

Yes it's July, and yes we had one the other night from some moron making smores in his fireplace. A couple of hits with the dry chem extinguisher from inside the house up the chimney worked well too. We just time the blast with closing the flu to minimize the mess in the house.

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