MAGNOLIA'S OTHER "VOLCANO"

Not  too  many  years  ago,   when  my  very  distant  cousin  June  Robinson  Hohing  and  her  hubby  Keith  Hohing  lived  across  Jackson  Avenue  from  Rise`  and  I,    Magnolia's  "other  volcano"   occurred  --  in  their  chimney.   (Those  who  want  to  read  about  the  Magnolia's  "first  volcano"  are  referred  to  
http://2magnolialife.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-magnolia-volcano.html)


Keith  and  June  were  wood  burners  who  reduced  their  heating  bill  in  the  Winter  by  burning  waste  wood.   They  had  a  wood  stove  next  to  their  fireplace,   and  vented  the  smoke  from  the  burning  wood  up  their  chimney.

Had  Keith  and  June  known  to  ask  them,  members  of  the  Magnolia  Fire  Company  would  have  told  them  why  venting  smoke  from  combustion  of  wood  up  one's  chimney  can  be  problematic  --  and  why  London  had  chimney  sweeps   in  the  era  of  Charles  Dickens:  The  phenomenon  of  chimney  fires.

One  winter  day,  Rise`  and  I  were  both  at  home,  minding  our  own  business,   when  we  suddenly  heard  the  roar  of  a  fighter  jet   outside  our  Jackson  Avenue - side  windows.

I  yelled  to  Rise`,  "Tiniest,   what  the  heck  is  that  sound  outside???!!!  It  sounds  like   an  Air  Force  jet  taking  off  out  side  our  door!!!"

We  ran  outside,  and  saw  a  most  amazing  sight:   Keith  Hohing  was  in  the  middle  of  Jackson  Avenue,  looking  up  at  his  chimney.   Coming  out  of  Keith  and  June  Hohing's  chimney  was  a  tall  blue  flame.    It  wasn't  a  normal  fire's  flame.  It  was  coming  out  at  several  hundred  miles  per  hour,  and  roaring  like  a  powerful  volcano  --  like  the  volcano  in  the  final  scenes  of  the  1961  Spencer  Tracy  movie,  "The  Devil  at  4:00  O'clock."   I  said  to  Keith,  "Keith,  WHAT  THE  HECK  IS  GOING  ON???!!!"

"Hi,  Pete,"  he  answered  with  laudable  calm,  "I  think  that  I've  got  a  chimney  fire,  and  I  think  that  that  is  what  a  chimney  fire  looks  like!"

I  said,  "That  can't  be  good,  Keith.    If  blue  flame  is  coming  out  of  the  top  at  several  hundred  miles  per  hour,   then  the  bricks  IN  your  chimney  are  red  --  and  the  wooden  superstructure  of  your  house  is  about  to  catch  fire.  You  called  it  in?"

"Fire  company  is  on  the  way,  Pete,"  Keith  responded  --  and  at  that  moment  I  heard  the  Fire  Company's  alarm,  7  moaning  blasts  of  their  horn.

A  few  minutes  later,   the  fire  trucks  pulled  up.    The  Fire  Chief,  my  friend  Emil,   drove  up  in  his  car  a  minute  later.   While  Keith  talked  to  the  firemen  about  putting  out  the  amazing  chimney  fire,   Emil  explained  chimney  fires  to  me.

"Hey,  Pete,"  he  said,  as  blue  flame  continued  to  rush-out  of  Keith  and  June's  chimney  at several  hundred  miles  per  hour  with  an  incredible  roar.   "Wow!,"  he  said.  "That's  a  hot  one!   You're  looking  at  a  classic  chimney  fire,  here.    The  folks  living  in  that  house  must  have  a  wood  stove."

"Yup!"  I answered.

"Well,  what  happens  is  that  the  flammable  creosote  builds  up  in  the  chimney,  deeper  and  deeper  and  deeper ...

...  until,  finally,  it  catches  fire.   Because  the  fire  extends  up  the  length  of  the  chimney,   heat  from  the  row  of  built-up  deposits  that  are  aflame  in  the  chimney  accelerates  the  gases  rushing  up  the  chimney  faster  and  faster  and  faster,   until  there  is  this  super-oxygenated,  super-heated  column of  fast-moving  hot  gases,  sucking  O2  out  of  the  house,  and  rushing  it  up  the  chimney,  from  the  fireplace  to  the  top  of  the  chimney,  like  a  super-hot  jet.  That's  why,  right  now,  it  sounds  like  a  fighter  jet about  to  take  off!

"The  danger  is  that  it  will   make  the  masonry  in  the  chimney  so  incredibly  red  hot   that  it  will  ignite  the  wooden  superstructure  of  the  house   next  to  the  chimney  bricks."

"That's  what  I  told  the  owner,"  I  responded.  "How  do  you  guys  douse  a  strange  fire  like  that?"

"We  do  two  things,"  Emil  answered.     "First,  we  have  to  do  what  we  can  to  choke  off  the  O2  supply  to  the  flue.   Do  Keith  and  June  have  one  of  those  open-fireplace-and-wood-stove  combinations  in  their  house?"

"Yup,"  I  responded.

"Well,"   Emil  answered,    "Our  guys  are  doing  what  they  can,   then,  to   send  some  non-O2  or  steam  up  the  flue,  to   reduce  the  fire  in  the  creosote,   and  then  to  cut  off  the  air  flow  to   the  flue,  which  also  reduces   the  fire.   Both  measures  will  help  to  change  that  'blow  torch'  on  the  top  of  the  chimney  to  an  ordinary  fire ...

Then  our  guys  on  the  roof  of  their  house  will  be  able  to  drop  chemicals  down  the  chimney   from  the  top,   which  will   send   only  non-O2  gases  up  the  chimney  able  to  douse  the  fire.

"After  we're  sure  that  none  of  the  superstructure  of  the  house   has  been  set  afire  by  the  enormous  heat  in  that  chimney,    and  the   chimney  cools  off,  it  will  be  up  to  Keith  and  June  to  have  the  chimney  cleared  of  creosote  and  inspected  for  damage  from  the  fire,  before  they're  able  to  use  it  again."