lope liberty scared the p*** out of me today. What should I do?

[Shmudda]

My thoughts....

1.) Get someone in there to brush the chimney and run a camera down thru before you use it again. You had a chimney fire by the description, no doubt in my mind. Been there done that!
2.) I had a chimney fire and had the exact thing going on, sounds like a freight train and the clay tile flues start fracturing, sounds like a high power rifle going off behind your wall. Pucker factor at 200% at that time.
3.) I shut the stove completely down, pulled out the air damper and did NOT open the bypass. I could even hear the air being sucked past the door gasket. Opening the by pass was NOT the thing to do.
4.) After all this I ran outside and the top of my chimney looked like a blowtorch, it had flames coming out the top about 5 feet tall, chimney itself is about 37 foot tall. I scampered up on the roof and took a heavy plate of stainless steel with me and put over the top of the chimney, as I didn't have a cap on it at the time. Doing all that snuffed the fire out somewhat quickly. Ash and soot was raining down on everything like a volcano erupted. The radiant heat up there was AMAZING! Singed my beard and hair some, small price to pay to save the house!
5.) Swept the chimney myself, got about a 55 gallon drum of burnt ash out of it, was truly amazed.
6.) Called a REGISTERED chimney sweep. He came with a camera and took pictures of the fractured clay tiles. Couldn't use the chimney due to that.
7.) Called the insurance company, they came out looked at everything and paid for a stainless steel liner.

Lessons learned:
1.) Small splits like you were burning is an accident waiting to happen.
2.) Most small splits I throw in is two, and then 2 large 4-6" diameter logs or equal sized splits. This stove will get away from you if not careful, which you found out. larger the logs in the stove the safer you are.
3.) After the stainless steel liner was installed I sweep the chimney every year, sometimes twice.
4.) Chimney fire was ALL my fault! Didn't sweep the chimney for about 7 years, no cap and the liner cross section was to big for the stove. Due to this fact alone the chimney never heated up properly to ward off the creation and buildup of creosote. Again, self inflicted!
5.) Stove never burned so good since the stainless steel liner was installed. Best thing that happened to me........

Better thank the good lord you have a house left......I know I did!!

Craig

 

[brenndatomu]

Check the door gasket with the dollar bill test...it may be time to adjust it tighter

 

[ddddddden]

1)this was not a cold start, it was a reload but not on a large amount of coals.

I'm going to agree with everyone who says to save the small splits for cold starts.

4) the chimney on the outside of the house is approximately 20 feet up. then theres a 4 foot second off the stove, a 90, and then 4 feet of pipe to the wall thimble. . .

24' vertical. . .each 90 bend reduces draft like shortening the stack 3' or something, so ~ 18' vertical functionally.

from past experience when the stove is running with hight 7-800 stack temps. The stove top will still be down around 650 sometimes a bit lower. . .

Would a key damper help in this situation at all?

It sounds like you're saying that your stack temp is usually at least as hot as your stove top temp. I don't use a key damper, but I've seen a few threads where a key damper was used to keep more heat down in the stove. Your chimney isn't too tall, so I don't know why you would have too much draft. But if other Lopi owners don't report routine stack temps of 600+ deg, I think you might have excessive draft.

 

[fespo]

Im glad everyone is ok.

I don't think you had a fire but just a VERY HOT fire
I have the same stove and the same problem. First put in a flue damper for something like just what you had. I have a super strong draft, cold days with wind and dry wood the flue will go to 1000-1200 in a heart beat if I don't watch it. If it does happen again, make sure the air is closed, fans on if you have them, close the flue damper and I put on a box fan to keep things cool. When something like that happens it makes your heart race.

 

[TonyC1]

I had a fire by not cleaning for about 2 years..freight train...flames..lava like soot everywhere . I got a SS liner...clean it every 3x a year...I got a soot-eater kit...flexible rod with a weed whacker-like ball and heavy strings. Used it 3 years and then had my chimney sweep check it...says I did a great job..nothing for him to do. I needed a second set of rods since my chimney is about 25 ft. Pushes right up through the top of my Jotul 550c...moderate speed with my drill..reverse the drill direction when working it back out. Kit was less than 100 bucks and has saved me several fold that plus I know my chimney is clean....fire was scary as hell.

 

[wi_wood]

I've had a Liberty for close to 10 years and a 520 (same thing sans EPA gear) for 15 years before that. Been burning wood for a long time, before that too. Just for background. Anyway, that's pretty hot, but I believe my stoves have seen that at the stack dozens of times if I forget to close it down after I've kindled a big load. Usually I've left the door open a crack, and left the secondary lever open and the bottom draft control open. Here's the deal: if you have the sedondary lever in (closed) and the bottom draft control out (closed) you ought to be able to reduce your temps significantly with a minute or two. If you can't, you've got some sort of problem with your draft control and it is allowing too much air in with it being closed. These stoves are meant to burn hot- but hot means 350-500, not 1,000! As for the advice to "open the door to cool the fire." Well, to be nice, I'll put it like this: oxygen = higher temps. Period. You want to restrict the oxygen man! If you ever have a too hot situation whether because of a chimney fire or otherwise, you need to restrict or preferably eliminate the oxygen (air) getting into your stove! Not allow it to come in unrestricted. In fact, nothing could be worse to do if you have a chimney fire. Maybe you had a stove pipe fire rather than a chimney fire- that happens sometimes, has happened to me dozens of times over the years. That'll get your stack temps up real quick. That's from burning too cold of fires too often, and/or unseasoned/poorly seasoned wood. The creosote builds up on the walls, eventually it's enough to iginite and it burns hot! Usually, not a problem. However, also highly likely your chimney is next. That's happened to me too. I've had to stick an extinguisher in the clean out a couple times to put them out through the years. They always start for me because of not cleaning chimney often enough, and then burning an especially hot fire with too much draft. A quick blast will put it out as long as you have everything shut down. Anyway, no way that stove should burn at those temps with everything shut down. If it is, check your draft control to see that the sliders on the bottom are fully closing. Good luck!

 

[begreen]

It's counterintuitive, but opening the door on a blazing fire does a couple things. First it breaks the draft which is pulling hard on the secondary combustion tubes and second it allows an inrush of room temperature air. This cools down the fire and the flue. It takes nerves of steel and maybe of change of underwear afterward, but it does work. After a few minutes the flue temps will start to decline. One should not use this procedure if there is a chimney fire. That's an entirely different situation.