Chimney fire – What Happens to the chimney?
Most often, a chimney fire expands the creosote in the chimney and cracks the clay tile liners. Your home is now much more susceptible to extreme damage from the next impending chimney fire. If you’re interested, email me and I’ll send you a photo of a chimney after a chimney fire which definitively shows that a chimney fire normally does not clean out the chimney. The clay tile liners and brick in the chimney are the only barrier between the smoke in the chimney and the combustible framing of your home. Once the clay tile liner has cracked then a potential passageway has been provided for additional creosote to build up outside of the chimney flue and closer to combustibles. It’s usually a second or subsequent chimney fire that causes devastating damage. Keep in mind that a chimney is meant to be a passageway for SMOKE and is not meant to be exposed to fire! A clay tile liner is designed to withstand temperatures of only about 130 degrees F. Here’s an interesting experiment: put a cla
