Spardo:
grumpy old man:
Franglais:
With chimney fires I was told that pouring water slowly onto the fire, would send steam up the chimney, so starving the burning tar deposits of air, and extinguish the fire.
Never needed to try it so don’t know how well it would work.Mrs Howram would tell the fire brigade to “bugga off” (they never did), her reasoning was to let the fire burn itself out and at a stroke…she would save the cost of the chimney sweep man.
I’ve never experienced a chimney fire, so what is the danger in leaving it alone till it runs out of fuel? Can it spread to the rest of the house somehow?
I don’t know, we never got that far, the fire brigade came (3 incidents to my knowledge) and they extinguished the fire. Soot and water everywhere. Dad ranting at mother, mother ranting at firemen, and the whole street watching free entertainment.
Got to say, chimney fires were not uncommon with open coal fires, to avoid them the secret was to have the chimney swept regularly (avoid the build up of soot), it was the soot that caught fire.