Had a chimney fire today, don't want another!

I have a wood burning stove. The steel pipe goes into the chimney about 2ft above. We lit the fire earlier, and before you know it the chimney was on fire - very frightening. I closed all the vents to the woodburner and closed the top chimney vent. Eventually the chimney fire went out but it took quite a while.

I've decided to rerope the door and window seals as well as sweep the chimney tomorrow, to be sure of cutting off the oxygen supply as the fire would have gone out a lot quicker than it did. Some of the problem is the steel pipe between the box and the chimney. The joint is filled with fire cement, but as is normally the case, the cement cracks up and allows the air through to make matters worse.

Does anybody know of a make of flexible fire cement?

Obviously this is a dangerous thing to happen, how had your chimney got so sooted up? They need sweeping every year.

When the sweep comes get him to sort out the top of the steel pipe, it should be attached to a steel register plate up inside the fireplace. He will also fit a port to make sweeping easier next time. Your sweep is your best friend.

sounds to me like its not fitted correctly.

the way i fit a stove is :

concrete header or register, this is sealed all the way round the slab to the inside of the chimney.
core drill 6 1/2 inch hole or there abouts.
seal with rope (very important) and fire cement (fire cement falls out on its own.

this is were i think yours may be wrong.

knock a hold out in the breast, vermiculite/micrafill to the top of the steel single wall flue, then using a sharp sand/cement mix haunch up to the edges of the inside of the flue making 45 degrees making a nice slope or gather so anything coming down the chimney goes into the appliance,

whats happening with yours is when sweeping the appliance you have 2 foot of highly flammable soot from the top of the register all the way to the top of the single wall flue and no amount of sweeping will fix this on the contrary it will make it worse.

lastly check his brushes lots of sweeps have the same brush for years and use the cheap plastic bristles.

if there is no access to sweep from below ask him to sweep with a bigger brush from the top, also ask him to clean inside of the the pot to.

ask him to use the correct size brush for the flue

an air brick in the room will also help and should be fitted many are not.
lack of combustion air can cause the flue to fail and cool down causing extra soot and build up in the flue .

i know they say anything under 5kw does not need 1 but i think all sold fuel need air and always fit 1.

lastly fire cement only cracks to that extent if the flue is moved, stop it from moving and it wont crack.

hope this covers it .. its very late and i may have missed something.

If you get a chimney fire it is very difficult to seal it off / stop air getting to it as it will pull in huge amounts.

Instead - lightly spray water onto the fire - not enough to put it out - you are aiming to send up clouds of steam to knock out the fire, then when you think you have it out shut it all up and keep an eye on it to make sure.

Can't say I would have been keen to do this as:

a) Not keen on opening up the fire doors as the chimney fire could well be on its way out anyway.

b) Read somewhere that water on a cast iron stove is not a good idea especially as I wouldn't be able to guarantee just putting minimal water on. When the roaring is going on you'd need a level head just to sprinkle the water on.

Fair enough - just passing on what my fireman next door neighbour said they do when called out to chimney fires.

Apart from what to do with an actual fire think about how it happened. Wood causes tar like resin to stick to the flue, brushing does not remove it, resinous woods like the fir family will be the worst offenders. Buy a product that you sprinkle on the burning wood once a week to react with the build up. It will dislodge the tar that will fall into the grate/fire box. Keep using it fairly regularly. It is not cheap but neither is the potential result of a fire.