What is the best saftey equipment to have around in case of a chimney fire?

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mellow said:
Coming from someone who has had 2 chimney fires in the last 5 years the firefighters advice is dead on. If you hear a roar coming from your pipe/chimney RUN outside and see if you see thick dark smoke coming from the chimney, you will likely see flames too from the creosote. Call 911 ASAP. DO NOT try to open the fireplace, as soon as you can try and close all the air from going in the insert/woodstove. It is a good thing the fire dept is only half a mile from me, but it still took 8 minutes for them to get here. By the time they get here the chimney fire has usually died out, but the important thing is they carry a thermal scanner and can check to make sure you don't have any hot spots left in the chimney. After the 2nd chimney fire I had a professional chimney cleaner come and found out why I was having the fires, then I bought a liner and found this website :) I always have a good size fire extinguisher within 10ft of the insert.

Move that extinguisher back a ways. If it gets hot and explodes it will make your chimney fires look like a spring picknic. Keep extinguishers near the exits to the house. They don't do anything for you back in the middle of the fire. Well, except spray shrapnel.
 
As to a previous post in this thread, the Chimfex chimney fire extingisher sticks that look like road flares are no longer available anywhere anymore. The factory burned down in 2006 and they did not go back into business.

Line it, burn dry wood and clean it once a year and you won't need that stuff anyway.
 
This is one very good thing I like about my external stainless chimney, one of the through the wall and up the outside kind. It takes me 5 seconds to remove the clean out cap and check or brush it. Very easy to keep it clean. (sort of have to keep it clean to maintain a good draft though)
 
Not to contradict Brother Bart, but there is stove store in N.H. called WoodmansPartsPlus.com that does sell a similar product. They look like small sticks of dynamite. They have a marvelous retail store as well as on-line sales business.Their Phone # is 1(603)-522-3028. Their retail store is closed on Sundays and Tuesdays. They also have a very nice little old stove museum...free admission and have some incredible stuff in it.
 
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