My parents have a fireplace with a masonry chimney which is on an exterior
wall. We used to have to crumple a news paper, and hold it up into the
chimney, light it, and then let the news paper burn a couple seconds to get
the draft going. I felt like the Statue of Liberty, but it did work.

--

Christopher A. Young
Keep Jesus Christ in CHRISTmas
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
news:Vy_xd.5870$152.2378@trndny01...

wrote in message
ups.com...
The other week I had a fire going in my family room fireplace. Shortly
after starting the fire, I noticed the smoke was backing up in the
chimney - and the whole downstairs was quickly flooded with smoke.
This is the second time in a year this has happened. After the 1st
time, we suspected it might be a negative pressure situation, so I have
been sure to crack a nearby window every time I start a fire ... guess
that doesn't help.

It can happen for a couple of reason. One is the temperature differential.
If the fire is just starting, the damper is open, the cold air in the
chimney wants to come down as it is heavier than the air below it. Once the
fire gets going and produces a lot of heat, the air flow can be reversed.
If you feel a cold down draft, try lighting some loosely crumpled newspaper
paper just to get a hot air flow going up. The paper gives a lot of heat
quickly.