I would say its worse and the biggest drawback to wood burning especially if you use a fan to move air. I think the problem could be mitigated some from the stove design. I can say with my stove I wished it had a side door with a higher lip and/or andirons . It it is pretty much guaranteed when opening door of a Castine or a narrow profile stove or dumping the tiny ashpan some ash is going to dump out. I have a cordless hand vac with a hepa filter nearby which helps on the mess but if you have a situation where a log rolled forward you have to leave the mess until it safe to clean up