Leaving a fire after starting

[PistolPeets]

Hello again for another wood burning season, all.

I've been thinking of this for a while and finally decided to post the question.

I have a job that requires me to drop everything and head to work at a moments notice (substation/metering technician). I have a girlfriend who lives with me, but she works odd hours too and can't always be home. Does anyone have any experience starting a fire, then having to immediately leave due to unforeseen circumstances? If so, what do you do? When I start my fires, I run the air intake open all the way until I get a good fire established and temps climb above 300 F, then cut the air back to low. I would not be comfortable at all leaving the house with the air intake all the way open.

Any advise?

Thank you,
Josh

 

[Dataman]

Is it in Fireplace or Wood Stove? Just make sure it's not throwing embers out or anything near it can burn. Better to damp it down and have it go out than overburn and ruin your stove if it's WS.

 

[BigJ273]

I actually try hard not to start a fire if there’s a chance the house may be empty. But I recognize it could happen. I bought a $30 IP camera that I keep on my wood stove. It’s not fancy. It doesn’t record, but I can watch it live from the app on my phone, which gives me piece of mind if I absolutely have to leave it burning. I have no desire to keep a fire going routinely when we’re not here. I will gladly pay the oil bill, instead of the insurance deductible.

 

[PistolPeets]

Is it in Fireplace or Wood Stove? Just make sure it's not throwing embers out or anything near it can burn. Better to damp it down and have it go out than overburn and ruin your stove if it's WS.

Thanks for the reply. It's an insert. I've never tried to dampen it down entirely on startup. I should try that sometime as a test.

 

[bholler]

Thanks for the reply. It's an insert. I've never tried to dampen it down entirely on startup. I should try that sometime as a test.

If you need to leave shut it back to where you would normally run it at. Yes it will probably sit there and smoke and smolder. But there is very little danger from that one time.

 

[PistolPeets]

I actually try hard not to start a fire if there’s a chance the house may be empty. But I recognize it could happen. I bought a $30 IP camera that I keep on my wood stove. It’s not fancy. It doesn’t record, but I can watch it live from the app on my phone, which gives me piece of mind if I absolutely have to leave it burning. I have no desire to keep a fire going routinely when we’re not here. I will gladly pay the oil bill, instead of the insurance deductible.

I hear you there. At any given moment, I could be called into work. I have a good IP camera system in my house, but I can't really think of a way I could get a camera pointed at the stove with the layout of my house. My house is electric heat, but the bills aren't too bad. I just like to burn wood on cold nights when I can.

 

[PistolPeets]

If you need to leave shut it back to where you would normally run it at. Yes it will probably sit there and smoke and smolder. But there is very little danger from that one time.

Thanks, bholler. I'll attempt this sometime as a test while I'm home. I have a fear of the backpuff (experienced it one time) where the flame was out during a burn, and the gasses ignited causing a poof and fine ash coming out of anywhere it could escape.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

If I had to leave the house the last thing I would do is leave the aire wide open, that will lead to the fire burning its hottest and thats what you want to avoid. I would be ok with cutting the air back and letting the fire burn longer and if its smoking ok, I would do a mid season sweep like mid December or early January. I would also do the ACS... anti creo soot spray.. if this happened more than once

 

[firefighterjake]

Like others . . . I try very hard to not have anywhere to go for at least an hour so I can get a fire started/reloaded and have it in cruising mode.

But . . . sometimes life doesn't follow your time table . . . in which case I always play it safe and close down the air to all the way shut or almost shut -- the point where I would normally leave it once the fire was going. Better to gunk up the chimney and glass and have to sweep/clean at a later date than to have an overfire situation in my mind.

 

[begreen]

What if they call when you are in the shower? Seems like taking 5 minutes to ensure safety should be built into planning.

 

[PistolPeets]

What if they call when you are in the shower? Seems like taking 5 minutes to ensure safety should be built into planning.

Safety is #1 in my book and like everyone here has said, if I could allocate an hour to watching the stove and running it properly before leaving the house, that would be ideal. However, I don't always have that luxury.

 

[xman23]

Best to practice this before you need to put the plan into action. For me doing cold starts, I don't stuff the box. So there's not enough fuel to over fire with the first load. The Oslo has a lot of internal cast iron plates and external cast iron to heat up. But after it's got a bed of coals, like Jake said the air control almost fully close controls the burn.