By LISA G. CURRIE

By LISA G. CURRIE

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

The early chill of autumn has only just settled over Rappahannock County bringing with it color for trees, the acidic smell of woodfires and the wail of fire sirens.

Chimney fires foretell the coming of winter.

“Rappahannock and Culpeper County fire departments get calls for three to five chimney fires a week,” according to J.C. “Roseoe” Barnes, a Culpeper chimney sweep and a paid firefighter in Fairfax County paid firefighter. Mr. Barnes owns Coles Chimney Sweeps.

The numbers may seem high, but already this year Rappahannock County volunteer firefighters have spent early mornings racing to calls of distress as the roar of a chimney fires fills the house with what sounds like an oncoming train.

While the roar warns the firebuilder that things are amiss, often the chimney fire burns quietly, without warning of impending disaster. A chimney fire, according to Mr. Barnes, can burn at anywhere from 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (F) to 4,000 degrees, damaging unlined chimney brick or the most common liner, terra cotta, which can withstand temperatures only to about 1,800 degrees. Temperatures above that produce cracks which offer an outlet to sparks which may then catch against the house frame, causing a house fire, as well, at some later date.

As the threat of winter becomes real and heat becomes a necessity, chimney sweeps near and far are getting booked late into the days of October.

“As the price of oil and gas continue to go up, more and more people turn to wood for heat,” Flint Hill chimney sweep Bruce Vierling said. With the increase ir woodburning stoves comes the need for an increase ir chimney cleaning.

While the cedar tree on a rope plunge, the live chicken or goose dangling, kicking, flapping and squaking on a rope, or a chain with bricks may have sufficed in early times, those methods are outdated now.

“I hate to hear of the chain and brick,” said Mr. Vierling, who owns Old Town Sweeps. That method does more harm than good, he explained, since it can damage the flue, often producing cracks not present earlier.

Airtight stoves produce more creosote and need professional attention, he added. Chimney sweeps, many still costumed with stove-pipe hat and tails, clean chimneys with brushes and high-powered vacumns, protecting flues and removing dangerous creosote.

“Nearly all chimney fires are due to buildup from creosote,” that shiny black tar-like substance which builds inside the woodstove pipe and along the chimney, Mr. Vierling said. As evidence, he removed a stove pipe and inspected the flakey black substance on the interior.

“The shiny black stuff is what you don’t want to see,” Mr. Vierling pointed out, adding the sticky creosote, which resembles tar, is the most eonbustible and the hardest to remove from both chimney and stovepipe.

Creosote is found most commonly in chimneys which vent an airtight woodstove. It is less often found in chimneys which Vent older stoves which are not as airtight and even less frequently in chimneys venting a fireplace. The tar builds from smoldering fires, accumulating from both dry and green wood burning.