Learning the hard way!
- Views Views: 3,460
- Last updated Last updated:
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
-
The first place I saw burn down from a stove was a tool shed. Here is the tale of woe!
Yours truly and a bunch of hippies lived in the hollows of West Virginny.
We had a rented house, and some extra bread vans and a corn crib (we insulated it with cardboard and newspaper) to live in. At the time, my wife and I had a bedroom in the house.
The shed was about 30 feet away and was two story. We had no bathrooms nor showers or baths….so, we converted the root cellar which was below the shed to a Sauna. What a nice job we did - using rough sawn lumber for all the walls….looked just great! Installed a warm morning wood stove we found used for $25. or so - and the pipe of course had to go through the wall - in this case, about 3 inches from the ceiling. Someone said to use Asbestos. so we wrapped a little sheet around it and that was that.
(The Shed in the story is to the right of the house - circa 1971)
Now it was time for the first night to get clean! Wow, we all went in there and fired that stove up, sweat up a storm and felt really good. Went outside and poured some cold water over us (it was winter)......my, I felt like a new man! Went into the house and to sleep.
My dog Wilbur wakes us up in the middle of the night barking his head off. One look out the window and we saw the shed fully engulfed. The heat was so intense that the house roof 30 feet away was steaming and about to ignite. - Oh, we had no hoses or running water either, and the local fire co. could not get their truck up the muddy road!
So we started a bucket brigade down to the creek and threw wet blankets over the house gable to protect it from the flames. BOOM - as the welding tanks and an LP tank blew. All our chainsaws and tools were gone, gone, gone.
In the morning only some twisted metal and ash remained.
A one-time use sauna.