So - I was just getting ready to lay down for the night on Wednesday - a
bit early. Started to tuck in and I thought I smelled something.
Something not right. It wasn't the normal smells of a wood burning
stove - it was the smell of lumber burning. That's a very different
smell, for those who don't know about wood burning.

I got up and looked all through the house in the area of the woodstove
and the chimney, and found nothing at all out of order. Went outside
and looked up to my chimney and my roof - same thing...nothing out of order.

Went back inside and looked around again. Tried to understand if I was
even really smelling what I thought I had smelled. Sure enough - the
smell of burning lumber.

Side note - this is a problematic smell when one lives in a log home!

Went back outside and walked further down the driveway to get a better
angle to look up at the roof and the chimney. Then I saw it - sparks
showering up out of my chimney.

I've been in many house fires over the years as a volunteer fireman, and
as a Chief. (No longer active in fire service). I'm very familiar with
chimney fires, and they typically have a characteristic sound which is
often likened to the sound of a freight train. Certainly a very loud
and very pronounced sound. The problem is - I had no sounds at all.

I keep a very clean chimney and I burn only well seasoned hardwood and I
burn my stove hot twice a day to keep it creosote free. The only
creosote my chimney ever sees is the dry, flakey type and not the
dripping sort of creosote. This was not making sense to me as I
investigated.

Finally opened the door to go down into the basement (which I had not
previously investigated). Oh my God! Could not see the bottom of the
basement stairs for all of the smoke. Became really concerned for
introducing oxygen into a potentially explosive environment, but I'd
already opened the door, so if something was going to flash over, it
would have by the time I realized what I was facing.

Made my way down the stairs and could not see a thing except for an
orange glow at the base of my chimney where the cleanout is located, and
of course the sound of fire. Made my way over to that point and saw the
fire working in the cleanout and extending up the partition that
surrounds the chimney.

Made my way up to the garage where I keep a commercial fire extinguisher
due to the kinds of work I do out in the garage. Brought it down and
hit the fire. Knocked the seat of the fire down almost immediately.
Still had fire happening due to the extension into the partition, but
went back upstairs and called 911. Waited for years for the first fire
guy to show up, who was a chief. We both went down to the basement and
between his extinguisher and mine, we hit a couple more areas where it
seemed we could further knock down any fire.

Fire trucks showed up and stretched a hose through my garage, my kitchen
and down into the basement. I lost it (I really ****ing lost it!) at
that point and heard myself begging them not to charge that hose! Just
did not want to imagine or experience everything associated with an 1
3/4" fire hose at 150psi inside my house.

Well, in the end they did not charge the hose, and were able to minimize
the damage by simply stripping off the partition surrounding the
chimney, taking all of the framing, etc. outside and to ensure that the
fire was out. Absolutely minimal damage, all things considered. The
bearing beam is charred somewhat but it is constructed of 5 2x10's and
the charring is not even really all that deep. Floor joists escaped any
real fire impingement. Could have been so much worse! Another 10
minutes and it would certainly have been much worse - a totally
different outcome.

The house was a mess after they left, from so many firemen traipsing
through and it looked absolutely horrible. But it was still standing
and really - hardly the worse for wear. Kids came up yesterday and did
a really bang up job doing cleanup. Cleanup is not really done yet but
at least things look more like normal.

--
-Mike-