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Safety Tips

Safety Tips

How can I prevent Carbon Monoxide poisoning?
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and deadly gas. When exposed to CO, it restrains your blood's capacity to carry oxygen throughout the body, actually suffocating your tissues and organs. CO can escape into your home's air through a faulty furnace, wood-burning stove, range, water heater, fireplace, or any device that burns combustible fuel. CO poisonings from fuel-burning appliances kill at least 175 people a year and send more than 5,000 people to hospital emergency rooms. Carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms can often be confused with flu symptoms, but become much more serious. Symptoms include headache, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, irregular breathing, mental confusion, unconsciousness, and ultimately - death. The key to protecting yourself and your family is prevention and the use of a quality carbon monoxide detector. Though everyone is susceptible, medical experts believe that small children, pregnant women, unborn babies, senior citizens, and people with heart or respiratory problems are more vulnerable.

A note about condensation in flues: Today's gas-fired appliances emit a considerable amount of water vapor. If not vented into a properly-sized flue, condensation in the chimney can become a serious hazard. If you have a gas-fired appliance connected to your chimney it is critical to have the chimney checked periodically by a chimney professional. Don't make the assumption that just because there is no smoke, there is no problem with the chimney. Odorless, colorless carbon monoxide fumes from improperly-vented gas appliances can be fatal.

Easy Tips for Starting Your Fire
Be sure to open the damper. This is forgotten more often than most people care to admit.You will need three things to start your fire:

Tinder: Crumpled up newspaper makes the best tinder. You can also use small twigs, pine needles, or pine cones.
Kindling: Large twigs, small branches, and small splits of wood anywhere from 1/4" to 1" in thickness will do. This is the most important ingredient for building a good fire and usually that most overlooked.
Fuel: Use only well-seasoned hardwood, like oak, ash or hickory. If you have to burn soft woods, be certain they are well-seasoned. Look for split, dry wood that has been stacked for up to a year. Loose bark and cracks in the ends are signs of seasoned wood.

Starting the fire:
Arrange two small to medium sized pieces of firewood on the grate, and place some crumbled up newspaper for tinder between the logs. Now cover the tinder with several pieces of kindling. Be generous with the kindling - it's the most important element in starting your fire. Now, place two or more pieces of firewood on top of the kindling and two more at right angles to these two. Leave some space between the logs for air circulation.

Warm up the flue: (For Fireplaces)
Warm up the flue by holding a piece of burning rolled-up newspapers in the (opened) damper region for 10-15 seconds. This helps the flue establish a good draft. Then light the tinder. Within a few minutes, you should have nice, hot, roaring fire!

Important Do's and Don'ts
Do check the manufacturer's guidelines for your woodstove or insert.
Do use seasoned hardwood.Do use commercial fire starters if you like. They eliminate the need for tinder and reduce the amount of kindling required.Don't burn artificial logs in a woodstove, unless they are specifically designed for woodstove use. Artificial logs can dirty the chimney much faster that regular wood, and can be hazardous in certain situations.

Don't burn treated lumber, trash, or anything with color print on it.
Don't burn anything other than wood in you fireplace or woodstove.

Valuable Troubleshooting Tips
Smoke Problems

Is your damper open?
If it is and the smoking continues, open a nearby window a crack for a minute or two until the fire is going well - then you can close it again.
If it just smokes when you light the fire, it may be because the flue is cold. Did you warm the flue with a burning rolled-up newspaper held in the damper region? (If not, that usually works)
If the chimney continues to smoke, call a chimney professional.
Your chimney may be clogged by animal nests or an accumulation of soot and creosote. It could be a more serious problem like broken flue tiles.

Chimney Odors
The sour, sickly odor is the smell of creosote. The solution is to call a chimney professional to clean your chimney and install a chimney cap to prevent water from entering and reacting with the creosote.Creosote BuildupSlow smoldering fires and/or the use of unseasoned wood can create "cool" smoke and weak draft. Under these conditions the smoke condenses and sticks to the chimney's interior, forming highly flammable creosote.

Efficient Burning Techniques
The key is to burn small, hot fires, using hardwood - that will minimize creosote accumulation and maximize heat output. Keep fires burning hot with flames, not smoldering with a lot of smoke. Be careful not to add too much firewood. In a fireplace, keep the top of the flames visible below the fireplace opening. In a woodstove, keep the flames confined to the woodstove itself. With glass doors, keep the doors wide open with the screen closed for a good half hour after starting the fire. When you see the fire is burning well, close the doors an set any draft controls. It's better to add smaller loads more often than to cram in a lot of wood trying to get an all-day burn. When you're ready to put out a fire, separate the logs by moving them to the side of the fireplace or stand them on end in the back of the fireplace. Close the screen or glass doors tightly, but don't close the damper until you're sure the fire and coals are completely out.

How To Avoid A Chimney Fire
To minimize creosote:

     Burn only seasoned woods
     Do not burn trash in a fireplace or woodstove
     Don't allow the fire to smolder
     Contact your chimney professional to clean your chimney regularly

** Creosote is the main cause of chimney fires. The buildup of creosote is highly combustible and can result in a chimney fire.**

Think Fire Prevention!
Make sure your fireplace habits are safe and do not pose a danger to your home or your neighborhood.

We hope we have been of some help to you in sharing our knowledge of burning safe and efficiently. If we may be of any other service please feel free to call us at (443) 992-5629.