Pellet Stove fire in Maine

[Bioburner]

Still to many ??? to make any real judgement. Having seen some installs fall way short of proper. Someone used PVC in one inspection, single wall vent pipe etc. With propain being still in the ugly range I am surprised there is not a lot more short cuts to keep warm

 

[Harvey Schneider]

The ash won't burn . You don't want to have excessive creosote, that builds from burning too cool ( real low stack temp) but even at that with pellet stoves it mostly is a watery black drip or stain more than built up hard creosote like from a wood stove that runs all choked up. No, more likely it was something else in this case. Do a good install, keep it cleaned regularly. Pellet stoves overall are safer than solid wood burning stoves but lets face it, they have fire in them, use common sense and inspect things now and then. Maintain your smoke/co detectors.

I don't remember where I saw this
"When you invite fire into your home, you have to treat it with respect."

 

[BrotherBart]

I don't remember where I saw this
"When you invite fire into your home, you have to treat it with respect."

Mike Holton's sig line.

 

[DOLLARBILL]

The House was old in the middle of nowhere no hydrants whats one to expect? As for only three men per truck ...thats SOP for most PAYED Fire Departments in Maine per NFPA !A volunteer fire department is just that Im sure the house well over a 100 years old had ballon construction and spread way before anyone even knew !One look at the property may assume the install MAY have been faulty, bottom line no one hurt doesnt matter

 

[DMKNLD]

The House was old in the middle of nowhere no hydrants whats one to expect? As for only three men per truck ...thats SOP for most PAYED Fire Departments in Maine per NFPA !A volunteer fire department is just that Im sure the house well over a 100 years old had ballon construction and spread way before anyone even knew !One look at the property may assume the install MAY have been faulty, bottom line no one hurt doesnt matter

From what I read and heard on the news, all that the Hollis Fire Dept could front was 3 fire fighters, with the rest of the response having to come from nearby towns. By the time mutual aid showed up from nearby towns, at that point it was a 'surround and drown'. As everybody's ISO fire insurance rates go up due to less fire protection capability, we all pay for the choice to live in a rural area in a town that has less fire suppression capability than in a big city. It seems at some point a little higher mill rate for everybody would support the FD's ability to pay on-duty staff, update equipment and training, improve rural dry hydrant water access etc.

While nobody wants higher taxes, when it's me or my family depending on my local FD to 'pull the bacon out of the fire', it's worth every dime in taxes I spent to protect my family and our property.

Follow up article was just posted.
http://www.kjonline.com/news/Maine_chiefs__Firefighting_suffers_from_lack_of_volunteers.html

 

[hyfire]

The enviro ef3 that I bought used had it's first chimney fire after 1 month then another one at 1 am dog barking and alarm going crazy.Black smoke every wear . Had to air out the house and it was cold that night.All I can say is it's a scary thing.made my mind to get rid of that junk and knock on wood loving my harman.

Can you give more details on the chimney design your using? Did you re-use an old chimney that had a wood stove on it before? 2 fires within a month?

 

[alternativeheat]

The House was old in the middle of nowhere no hydrants whats one to expect? As for only three men per truck ...thats SOP for most PAYED Fire Departments in Maine per NFPA !A volunteer fire department is just that Im sure the house well over a 100 years old had ballon construction and spread way before anyone even knew !One look at the property may assume the install MAY have been faulty, bottom line no one hurt doesnt matter

Well this fire was good for one thing around the forum here, it reiterated the statement, make sure you have working smoke and co detectors. Maintain them as well as the stove. I wonder how many don't ? I have two new ones coming tomorrow in fact. Out of our 7 between the main house and the apartment, two had iffy connections for the battery backup. One didn't look good the other acted indifferent to a dead battery or brand new battery and had been taken down because of the little chirp it gave off warning of a dead battery when it wasn't. It was from our guest room. This week was a good reminder to do something with that one and look at the others which normally would happen in April anyway ( do upgrades etc twice a year normally)..

 

[tjnamtiw]

Can you give more details on the chimney design your using? Did you re-use an old chimney that had a wood stove on it before? 2 fires within a month?

Clue #1 on the guy's 'chimney' fires was 'used stove'. Probably FUBAR to start with.
Clue #2 smoke everywhere in the house. With a chimney fire, it's sucking major air OUT of the house. More likely, the combustion/exhaust fan wasn't working correctly or he overfired the stove not knowing what he was doing or with the poor draft through the burnpot, it overfilled and snuffed out the fire and put smoke in the house. Don't buy used if you don't have a clue!

 

[Mr. Spock]

Homeowner stated that the pellet stove is where the fire started.

I dont recall stating that a pellet stove was not the cause of fire. Where did the home owner state that? I have read though many of the news post and videos. All I can ascertain is the stove was backed up and it appears to have started in the pipe which I can only assume is the reference to a part of the venting.

 

[alternativeheat]

Clue #1 on the guy's 'chimney' fires was 'used stove'. Probably FUBAR to start with.
Clue #2 smoke everywhere in the house. With a chimney fire, it's sucking major air OUT of the house. More likely, the combustion/exhaust fan wasn't working correctly or he overfired the stove not knowing what he was doing or with the poor draft through the burnpot, it overfilled and snuffed out the fire and put smoke in the house. Don't buy used if you don't have a clue!

Yes, there is one heck of a sucking noise going through the stove with a chimney fire, been there done that with a wood stove some 37 years ago or so.

 

[BrotherBart]

Nothing but conjecture. Nothing to see here. Moving along now.