Chimney Doctors' Homeowner's Guide

Easy Tips for Starting your Fire

Be sure to open the damper. This is forgotten more often than most people care to admit.

You will need three things to start your fire:

Tinder: Crumpled up newspaper makes the best tinder. You can also use small twigs, pine needles, or pine cones.

Kindling: Large twigs, small branches, and small splits of wood anywhere from 1/4" to 1" in thickness will do. This is the most important ingredient for building a good fire and usually that most overlooked. You can purchase wood shingles/shakes from any lumber store

Fuel: Use only well-seasoned hardwood, like oak, ash or hickory. If you have to burn soft woods, be cer tain they are well-seasoned. Look for split, dry wood that has been stacked for up to a year. Loose bark and cracks in the ends are signs of seasoned wood. You should never see bubbling liquids on the burning logs.

Starting the fire:

Arrange two small to medium sized pieces of firewood on the grate, and place some crumbled up newspaper for tinder between the logs.

Now cover the tinder with sev eral pieces of kindling. Be gener ous with the kindling - it's the most important element in starting your fire.

Now, place two or more pieces of firewood on top of the kindling and two more at right angles to these two. Leave some space between the logs for air circulation.

Warm up the flue: (For Fireplaces)

Warm up the flue by holding a piece of burning rolled- up newspapers in the (opened) damper region for 10- 15 seconds, using the poker tool. This helps the flue establish a good draft. Then light the tinder. Within a few minutes, you should have a nice, hot, roaring fire!

Efficient Burning Techniques:

The key is to bum small, hot fires, using hard- wood - that will minimize creosote accumulation and maximize heat output.

Keep fires burning hot with flames, not smoldering with a lot of smoke.

Be careful not to add to much firewood. In a fireplace, keep the top of the flames visible below the fireplace opening. In a woodstove, keep the flames confined to the woodstove itself.

With glass doors, keep the doors wide open with the screen closed for a good half- hour after starting the fire. When you see the fire is burning well, close the doors and set any draft controls

It's better to add smaller loads more often than to cram in a lot of wood trying to get an all-day burn.

When you're ready to put out a fire, separate the logs by moving them to the side of the fire place or stand them on end in the back of the fireplace. Close the screen or glass doors tightly, but don't close the damper until you're sure the fire and coals are completely out.