Manufactured Chimney Dangers

 

 

 

House Fire!

On November 2nd a family woke to their neighbor screaming through the front door, "GET OUT YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!!"
What a horrifying way to be waken out of a deep slumber, especially for the 3 children who lived at this residence in Northborough Massachusetts.

Due to the early Nor'Easter New England had days before no one in the area had power, heat or lights. It would seem like a very practical idea, one that anyone would agree with. On the cold autumn evenings why not light a fire in the fireplace to stay warm? Sounds reasonable enough. Wrong! It might come as a surprise that all those many many wooden manufactured chimneys people have on the sides of their houses are not suitable for producing heat. The fireplaces are screwed to the framing in the walls, and the firebox is actually sheet metal with a ceramic insert.
No one is told about these things when they choose a builder to build a home. No one is told that these types of chimneys and fireplaces really are only for nostalgia purposes and not for making a room warm like written about here in this masonry blog. The Northborough Fire Chief make a few dishartening statements warning homeowners not to over use these units or they could suffer potentially deadly consequences. He said “It’s designed for a ceremonial or a pleasure fire at the holidays, not for hardcore, heavy-duty heating,” Northborough fire Chief David Durgin said.
That is a pretty shocking statement from my point of view. This chimney is put on a house and no warnings are given as to how it is supposed to be used! People are paying a lot of money for their houses these days it is horrible that something is slipped under the rug so to say, and marketed to homeowners as a "fireplace" when it really can't be used for much than a cute fire while people eat diner.
People don't know any better! And its up to the builders and the manufactures of these products to be very specific about the limitations of these types of components. This one fire was estimated to have caused $50,000 worth of damage and could have taken lives had not the neighbor come to the rescue!!