‘Winter is coming’ … and as a self-confessed Game of Thrones ‘tragic’, I love winter.
NB: for those [regrettably] not GoT devotees, ‘Winter is Coming’ is the underlying theme of that iconic HBO series.
Indeed, I love the smell of wood smoke drifting gently through the town. I love the snuggle and intimacy that winter brings: the glow of a fire in the hearth, a red at hand, the footy on the box – though ‘the box’ is more likely a plasma swirl of digital pixels now. Yes, I love winter … even the frisson of environmental guilt that comes from the burning of wood dims from the pleasure of it.
Walking a winter beach conjures a logarithmic spotters game: how many chimneys are smoking? … one … ten … one hundred? Log scales now seem so easy after months of endless tutelage from Covid-19 graphs.
Then reality strikes. The wood fires, the smoking chimneys [so many of them], and the distant sound of a siren – is it an ambulance, the police, a fire truck – pulls me up short. Setting the first fire of the coming winter, I had noted that a dusting – well, to be more precise, a bucket full – of creosote had accumulated in the fireplace over summer. Hmmm, I thought to myself … I wonder if that’s something to worry about.
I looked up ‘chimney fires’ on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimney_fire. It made sobering reading.
While I could not find comparable statistics for Australia – and per head of population, heating by wood fire is less common in Australia than in most northern hemisphere countries – I found that more than 25,000 chimney fires are reported each year in the US, with more than 7,000 occurring annually in the UK. Most of these were deemed ‘preventable’.
A 2020 Victorian CFA News and Media Bulletin: https://news.cfa.vic.gov.au/-/start-of-winter-prompts-chimney-warning, warned that there has been “an increase in the number of chimney fires from both fireplaces and wood heaters“, year on year. In this report, CFA Deputy Chief Officer Gavin Freeman has reminded us that, over time, “there is a build-up of creosote – a black tar-like residue – that is highly flammable and can clog up chimneys. Creosote also builds up more quickly if incorrect fuels [green wood or treated timbers] are used”.
The article gave the following tips for reducing the risks of a chimney fire:
- Check with a torch for creosote build-up or obstruction [bird nests/dead possums!]
- Only burn dry, clean wood
- Extinguish the fire before bed or when leaving the house
- Have your chimney professionally cleaned annually
It was the last dot point that ‘got me’. Annually? … hmmm [again] thought I … I took over ownership of our house from my parents in 1986, and they from my grandmother in 1967 … and it certainly hadn’t been swept since then! That’s nearly 55 years – at a minimum – without a bit of spring chimney cleaning. Perhaps my life – of the life of the house – has been charmed … after all, it did survive both Black Friday [1939] and Ash Wednesday [1983] … but fate should not be over-tempted.
I Googled ‘chimney sweep’ on my iPad.
I have always attached a certain olde-worlde, Dickensian sense of romance – and danger – to the occupation of a chimney sweep. I pictured the old pen-and-ink etchings of 19th century London: the soot-blacked faces of men wielding large dunny brushes on sticks. I thought of Oliver Twist being offered up as an apprentice chimney sweep to risk his life from smothering as were so many small boys of that era when lowered down chimneys.
After that morbid thought, I segued to Dick Van Dyke as the happy chimney sweep in the film production of Mary Poppins – just to cheer myself up.
My new ‘bff’ [social-media-speak for best friend forever] is now Steve. Steve, a friendly and efficient professional third-generation chimney sweep from Geelong had been more than happy to make the trip to Lorne to clean my 55-year+ unswept brick chimney … indeed who knows, it may well have stood, unswept, for 100-years+ if my grandmother had been similarly lax. A wheelbarrow load of creosote [and a very reasonable fee] later, and my conflagratory stress-o-meter was subsiding to normal while my chimney was now good-to-go.
A check with the local CFA records at least 2 chimney fires in the recent past while a search of the Lorne Historical Society database records several chimney fires – particularly in the 1960s, with one particular chimney fire at the school causing $100,000 damage to a wing of the new High School in 1968. Lesson: ‘chimbley fires do ‘appen’ … and I, for one, will make my pact with fate and ensure I adhere to CFA advice.
One additional warning has come from Dee Stewart, a local CFA member, who recalls a chimney fire that started after an old fireplace that had been retrofitted with a Coonara wood heater. The retrofit had been poorly designed with the flue being integrated into an old, unswept chimney rather than correctly extended to the exterior. An otherwise lovely renovation was soon consumed by flame and smoke. Lesson: a trap for careless renovators!
Do I wilt with guilt when I light my fire each night in winter … well, to a point, yes, I do. A paper in Atmospheric Pollution Research: 2011, 2[3] seems to make it clear that among other comparisons, an average wood heater contributes at least as much to global warming as the gas central heating of a 160 m2 house, or to 21% of Australian passenger cars. My response? … drive 21% less – and prevent my grandchildren from reading this – for I love my winter fire, and at heart, I remain a selfish baby-boomer!
Regret – yes … but a change of heart? … no. I will seek to make other recompense.
Walking the Lorne beach on a winter evening, wood smoke in the air and my hearth beckoning, I beg forgiveness from my eco-astute grandchildren as I hasten home to ignite a match in my newly swept chimney.
Rather, exhort others who are lovers – as am I – of a winter hearth fire: avert personal disaster and get your chimney swept!
John Agar
