Fire safety and establishing procedures

Hello everyone!  This is a PSA to establish a procedure on how to handle ashes after burning combustible materials.

For example: when cleaning out your firebox after a recent fire, put the ashes in a fireproof container and move them to a location where there is not risk of them catching something of fire.

We did not establish a system like that and it only took 1 mistake to learn the lesson the hard way.

P.S. The picture of the fire itself was provided by the fire department. The great ball of fire on the back side of the greenhouse was a large rosemary plant!

Amos Valenti wrote: This is a PSA to establish a procedure on how to clean out your rocket mass heater. Make sure everyone who operates your rocket mass heater knows that the ashes go into a fireproof container and emptied outside in a location that can't burn. You can choose the method that works best for your own set up but establish a "closing" procedure. It was purely operator error that caused the fire. We operated the RMH for years with no problems but it only took 1 mistake to ruin it all.

Amos, thanks for reaching out. I confess I am a little sick looking at the damage caused by the fire.

This is by no means an isolated incident. I personally know people who ran a top-shelf wood stove, tied into the ductwork, that helped heat their house for 15 years. And yet, one single mistake in the disposal of ashes, in 15 years, burned the house down to the tune of $600,000 in damages.

You are correct to say that there has to be a super-safe system that everybody follows, every time, automatically. It has to be designed for the moment when you are at your worst. We all have those moments.

Be well mate.

One thing about a well operating RMH is that except in the coldest weather, it does not need to be run continuously, and will burn all coals to mineral ash. These facts will allow you to only clean it out just before starting it up after some hours of downtime and there being no really hot ash or coals in it. Also, mine at least does not need to be cleaned out every day; ash can build up a few inches in the burn tunnel without ill effect, and I only need to clean it out every week or so.

Glenn Herbert wrote:One thing about a well operating RMH is that except in the coldest weather, it does not need to be run continuously, and will burn all coals to mineral ash. These facts will allow you to only clean it out just before starting it up after some hours of downtime and there being no really hot ash or coals in it. Also, mine at least does not need to be cleaned out every day; ash can build up a few inches in the burn tunnel without ill effect, and I only need to clean it out every week or so.

Thanks for sharing. We had a well operated, rocket mass heater for years. Not having an established procedure for cleaning it out caused a fire. That's the moral of this story.

Hi Amos,
I am so sorry to hear about your greenhouse. I'm glad that no one seems to have been hurt.

I just wanted to ask about the title of your thread. I worry someone might read it quickly like I did and be confused. It seems like the accident was related to improper ash removal which could happen with any wood burning device. Yours just happened to be a RMH. If you read the title quickly, it seems like this is specific to RMH which it does not seem like. I hope that makes sense.

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Amos,
I am so sorry to hear about your greenhouse. I'm glad that no one seems to have been hurt.

I just wanted to ask about the title of your thread. I worry someone might read it quickly like I did and be confused. It seems like the accident was related to improper ash removal which could happen with any wood burning device. Yours just happened to be a RMH. If you read the title quickly, it seems like this is specific to RMH which it does not seem like. I hope that makes sense.

Thank you Matt. And yes no one was hurt in the fire.

I could change the title to better reflect the main point of my post which is to establish a procedure for close out.