Safety tips for homes with wood-burning stoves, fireplaces

Tania Barricklo-Daily Freeman A wood stove at a home in Phoenicia. Professionals recommend wood-burning stoves be inspected annually -- preferably in the spring -- for ash and creosote buildup, cracks and animal or bird nests.




At this time of year, a few things are relatively certain: It will get colder and some homeowners will fire up wood stoves to stay warm.



If you’re planning to use wood to heat your home this winter, there are a few tips offered by an area chimney sweep, a firefighter and stove



inspector and even the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, all intended to keep you safe and warm.



“As the Boy Scout motto says, ‘Be prepared,’” said Dennis McGuire of Jimminy Peak, a wood and pellet stove sales, stove installation and chimney sweep service in West Hurley.



First, if you’re planning to burn wood, make sure your stove and chimney have been thoroughly checked out by a professional chimney sweep if it hasn’t been cleaned since the end of last winter. McGuire said wood-burning stoves should be inspected annually for ash and creosote



buildup, cracks and animal or bird nests. The optimum time for inspections is spring, he said, when stove installers and chimney sweeps tend to be less busy. Spring is a good time to “see what happened over the winter and make repairs,” he said.



But if you neglected to have the stove serviced in the spring, don’t hesitate to get it done before lighting your first fire or, at the very least, early in the heating season.



Invariably, when the first fires of fall are ignited, a few house fires are reported.



When stoves are allowed to sit uncleaned over the summer, creosote accumulated in chimney and flu pipe begins to flake, said Tom Chase, a deputy chief of thee Kingston Fire Department who also performs stove inspections locally. When homeowners fail to clean their chimneys, either in the spring or early fall, those flakes can easily combust, he said.



Chase said improved enforcement of fire and building codes are preventing improper installation of wood stoves and have cut down on chimney fires. Homeowners who install stoves on their own should adhere to their municipal codes and install their stoves and chimneys according to



the specifications in their owners’ manuals, being careful to maintain safe distances from walls and ceilings, Chase said.



And be sure to have your stove and chimney inspected before lighting your first fire.



Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, important in all homes, are especially essential in homes with wood-burning stoves, Chase said, warning that any combustion causes carbon monoxide.



After you’ve purchased firewood, make sure it’s stacked and protected from the elements, McGuire said. Wood should be covered with a tarp or kept in a wood shed that allows for circulation on all sides of the pile, but prevents rain and snow from running down through the stack. “I liken it to an armful of laundry out of the machine,” he said. “If you dump it on the floor in a heap, it won’t dry.”



If the forecast calls for a four-day torrential downpour, however, McGuire said it’s just fine to lower the sides of your tarps and cover the entire pile.



Ideally, the Environmental Protection Agency and local experts prefer wood to have a 20-percent moisture content when it’s burned.



“If somebody’s selling you a cord of seasoned wood, it should be a cord measuring four by four by eight (feet) and have a 20-percent moisture content.” McGuire said. “Rarely do either of them happen, let alone both.”



That’s why stacking your wood and allowing it to thoroughly dry is so important, he said.



The Environmental Protection Agency advises people who burn wood to consider purchasing a moisture meter to assure their timber is dry and safe to burn. Meters can be purchased online for a little as $20.



Both Chase and McGuire questioned the need for moisture meters, but said dry wood is essential to wood-burning safety. Wet wood, also known as green wood, contributes to creosote buildup, Chase said.



“Not all wood is the same,” says the EPA website. “Softwoods such as Douglas fir need six months to dry and hardwoods such as oak need at least 12 months. Garbage, plastic, treated lumber and driftwood should never be burned. They emit toxic fumes and particles.”



Tips about splitting, stacking, covering and storing wood properly are available online at www.epa.gov/burnwise.



Chase also advises homeowners to make sure furniture -- which may have been moved closer to the stove during warmer months -- as well as home decorations -- which could have wound up on wood burning stove surfaces -- are moved to safe distances from the stove.



The EPA encourages folks to consider replacing older stoves with new, more efficient models. “Approximately 10 million wood stoves are currently in use in the United States and 65 percent of them are older, inefficient, conventional stoves,” according to an agency website.



“Just 20 old, non-EPA certified wood stoves can emit more than 1 ton of fine particle pollution into your area during the cold months of the year.”



New stoves sometimes contain catalytic converters or are designed to burn smoke twice, Chase said.



“Old wood stoves are bad polluters and less efficient. Newer EPA-certified wood stoves and fireplace units reduce air pollutants by 70 percent compared to older models,” according to the EPA website. For a list of EPA-certified stoves, visit www.epa.gov.



Source: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20141019/safety-tips-for-homes-with-wood-burning-stoves-fireplaces



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