How sensitive is your smart home automation system? Is it set up to let you know when a chimney fire breaks out?
If you have a working fireplace in your home but haven’t yet set up a good home security solution, then you need to do two things. First, you need to take the necessary steps to ensure that you won’t have to deal with a chimney fire in the first place. Second, you need to get your home alarm security systems in place so that should this occur, the appropriate authorities are alerted.
Chimney Fires Tend to Burn Slowly
The most important reason why you want to have a good smart home automation service in place, as chimney fires aren’t known for burning very quickly. Rather, they don’t receive a lot of oxygen, since they occur in a very enclosed space. Plus the bricks that enclose the chimney tend to burn slowly as well. They don’t go up as quickly as wood.
However, if the fire is left alone, it will keep growing larger, especially once it reaches the top of the chimney. From there, it can jump to your asphalt shingles, set your roof on fire, and then your home is in trouble. If you have a good home protective services plan that’s set up correctly, you’ll be notified about that fire when it’s still in the low, small stages. It will be put out before you end up with a catastrophe.
Get Your Fireplace and Chimney Cleaned Regularly or Use Preventative Measures
Although home alarm security systems work well when you have a chimney fire, ideally, you want to prevent one of these fires from occurring at all.
In order to do this, you need to have your fireplace and chimney cleaned regularly. You can either hire a company to do this – chimney sweeps do still exist, although they don’t sing and dance while they work like the ones in Mary Poppins – or you can do it yourself.
Chimney fires are caused by a buildup of creosote on the inside walls. This substance, which is oily and extremely flammable, is a result of burning logs and other things inside of the chimney. It’s a natural occurrence.
Getting rid of this creosote is the best way to prevent a chimney fire. If you don’t want to call in a chimney sweep company, then you’ll need to burn a special log or some powder that’s designed to get rid of the buildup. On top of that, you can prevent creosote from forming in the first place, simply by burning wood that’s very dry in your fireplace. Wet wood encourages the growth of creosote.
Additional methods of preventing a chimney fire include burning hardwood instead of pine since the wood from pine trees contains a sap that can add to the buildup of creosote. Plus, lighting fires regularly, and allowing them to get fairly hot, will keep the creosote away. This substance really becomes a problem when the fireplace sits unused for long periods of time.
Know What a Chimney Fire Sounds Like
On top of having smoke and fire sensors set up on your home security solution program, you also need to know what a chimney fire sounds like. This way, if the sensors don’t sound right away, but you notice an odd popping or roaring noise in the vicinity of your fireplace, then you’ll know what it is: a chimney fire.
If you’re home and hear this noise, you need to get out of the house and call the fire department. However, if you’re not at home and happen to hear the noise over your smart home system, you’ll recognize it and be able to call the authorities before things get out of hand.
What a Smart Home Automation Service Can Do
A smart home automation service is designed to help you keep an eye on your house no matter where you’re located. This means that you’ll be able to detect a chimney fire when it first breaks out.
In some cases, the home protective services plan is designed to pick up on any sign of smoke or flame. This means that the system would not only alert you about the fire, but it would also notify your local fire department. This would give them enough time to put out the fire before it has a chance to spread to the rest of your house.
Overall, there are two main factors involved in preventing chimney fires. The first lies in knowing what you can do to keep your chimney and fireplace clean so that creosote doesn’t build up. The second relies on having a smart home automation system in place that will alert you and the local fire department should a chimney fire break out. Doing both will definitely help you save your house.