Thatched roof chimney fires

[skier-hughes]

How many have their been in this last really dry spell we've been experiencing?
Apparently enough for the NFU to send out a warning!!!

http://www.uttoxeter-news.co.uk/News/Warning-to-thatched-home-owners-after-fires-20130421162148.htm?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

 

[vicky whitworth]

Funny you should mention this. Only today when I checked the BBC Devon news the headlines were two thatch fires and I said to my husband, 'what's going on?' A row of thatched cottages destroyed in Exmouth and a house in North Tawton.

Then about two weeks ago a lovely Grade II cottage completely destroyed near us - burnt all day. We watched it go up. And on the same day two other thatch fires in Dorset.

When I was about eight I saw a thatch fire near Exmouth - the home of the author Delderfield. Mind you he'd been using a blow torch to strip paint under the roof. I still have the newspaper cutting. Frightened the socks off me as a youngster. I love the thatched places but I wouldn't have one myself.

 

[Keith Bowman]

And several thatch fires in East Anglia this year - another yesterday. Is it the increase in wood burning stoves?

 

[jocelyn plummer]

And one in Suffolk yesterday I believe--

 

[tobydog]

That's why NFU have increased my premium from £400 to £850 per annum in four years. £200 came in one year when they started picking up on the increase in wood burners being installed and coinciding with an increase in thatch fires. Our roof is very dry now but I won't be using our burner again this year anyway. We actually use our burner infrequently so on a cost per fire basis, the increase in premium for the wood burner actually makes it cheaper to burn oil :roll: .

The top section of our inglenook was removed some years ago and a concrete base built for a new upper stack. For this reason we are reasonably safe from hot flue gases leaking through old cracked brickwork although never safe from sparks. We've been using those blocks called Hotties this winter that burn very clean and we see no sparks from them. Our reed thatch is only about 12" thick compared to some wheat straw which can be a few feet. I'm not sure that these new ultra efficient high temperature burners should even be installed in thatched properties without a full appropriate survey. Ours is a very old chunk of iron but even then the flue gets very hot.

 

[88v8]

Ours is a very old chunk of iron but even then the flue gets very hot.

Speaking as someone sitting under a few feet of wheat straw, with two-woodburners, I think it's important to have a flue-gas thermometer and keep a careful eye on it. The temperature can go over-range very quickly, and the apparent state of the fire is no reliable guide to flue-gas temperature.
High temperatures will burn a hole in a liner, and then the protection that a liner gives, is gone, and one has no way of knowing.

Plenty of hand-wringing about CO meters, not enough attention to temperature measurement.

Ivor

 

[tycarregydwr]

But the whole point of new, ultra-efficient burners is that they produce LOWER flue gas temps because they are utilising that energy in the stove itself rather than sending it up the chimney. I agree, a flue gas thermometer is helpful and would demonstrate that the newer and more efficient the burner, the lower the flue gas temperature.

 

[El Greyo]

We've decided not to put in a wood burning stove because we have a thatched roof. Which is a shame as it is the sort of cottage that cries out for a wood burner. But the increase in premiums, however much it would cost to get the chimney lined and up to standard and the niggling worry we would have everytime we lit the fire have meant that we decided against it. I am now getting fed up with people asking if we're getting a wood burner and having to explain why not.

Our semi-detached neighbours have a wood burner so we can only hope that they keep their chimney and liner in good order.

 

[tobydog]

But the whole point of new, ultra-efficient burners is that they produce LOWER flue gas temps because they are utilising that energy in the stove itself rather than sending it up the chimney. I agree, a flue gas thermometer is helpful and would demonstrate that the newer and more efficient the burner, the lower the flue gas temperature.

That's a good point and thanks for reminding me to do my homework . It would be interesting to know what additional processes a HETAS engineer would go through when fitting a burner and flue to a timber frame thatched house compared to a full brick and tiled house. Apart from a visual inspection of the chimney (which would actually be very limited where it mattered) what else do they do?

 

[Lime]

From my experience of open fires of long ago the most probable time that sparks escape out of the chimney is when a fire is disturbed.
With enclosed fires that may mean initial lighting, raking, opening the doors and/or adding more fuel.

 

[elizabeth]

Hi , when we were in the process of buying our thatch, the seller arranged through the insurance company, a free chimney and flue inspection using a camera on a probe. Thankfully it came back to say it was in excellent condition.


However, I am nervous about using our wood burner regularly and worry about the heat transfer to the thatch. I'll invest in a flue thermometer and hopefully this will help me regulate the flue temperature. I hope one day we can plan to have a fireboard/insulation placed between the chimney and thatch when we have it re-thatched as it is believed that heat transfer is the cause of most thatch fires.

In the meantime, it is good to keep a balance view on this terrible spate of thatch fires as sadly brick house fires are just as common but just less destructive and less reported.

 

[worms]

In the meantime, it is good to keep a balance view on this terrible spate of thatch fires as sadly brick house fires are just as common but just less destructive and less reported.

Obviously brick house fires are actually more common than thatch fires as there are more brick houses, but I think there is an important distinction here. For non-thatched properties, once you strip out fires that are due to arson, drink & drugs and extreme negligence on the part of owners, you are left with relatively few fires that are caused by a failure of the equipment or services of the building during normal everyday use. I'm not sure the same is true of thatched properties.

 

[88v8]

But the whole point of new, ultra-efficient burners is that they produce LOWER flue gas temps because they are utilising that energy in the stove itself rather than sending it up the chimney. I agree, a flue gas thermometer is helpful and would demonstrate that the newer and more efficient the burner, the lower the flue gas temperature.

Any burner can produce a high flue temperature if it's run too hot, ie too much wood &/or too much draught. Old or new, no difference. We have a Clearview, one of the best, it can start to overheat the flue in about 4 minutes from a cold start.
I would say the more efficient, the more likely to produce a high flue temperature, because of superior burning characteristics. A woodburner is, after all, just a box in which to burn wood, and the essence of its efficiency is the ability to run at a higher temperature than an open fire, and thus extract more energy from the wood.

OTOH, our Esse, which was just as expensive but is simply not that good, struggles to produce a decent temperature from anything but perfectly dry wood. New does not necessarily equate to good.

Anyone running a woodburner with no thermometer is a prat. IMHO.

Ivor

 

[Bayliss]

Thatched house fire means its a news story, modern box house fire never mentioned, unless fatality involved. :roll: