Stumbled on a stat that says 1 in 3 chimney fires come from creosote buildup in the smoke chamber, not the flue.

I was reading through some NFPA reports from 2023 and that one caught me off guard. Has anyone else been focusing more on the chamber during cleanings after hearing something like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_scott8d ago

Figured out something interesting when I looked closer at those NFPA findings. Most folks probably clean the flue regularly but forget the chamber just because it's harder to reach. Your mileage may vary, but I started using a mirror and a flexible light to check the chamber during every cleaning last year. Found buildup there way more often than I expected, especially in older homes with offset flues. It's a total pain to clean sometimes, but ignoring it seems like a gamble.

emmag228d ago

Wait, isn't that stat mostly about people who never clean anything properly anyway, so the chamber is just the final symptom of a bigger neglect problem? Seems like if you're already doing a thorough flue cleaning the chamber's probably fine too, but I could be wrong lol.