Found a stat about creosote buildup that made me change my whole cleaning schedule

I was reading through some NFPA reports last night and stumbled on a fact that surprised me. Turns out chimney fires caused over 25,000 house fires in the US just in 2021 according to their data. What got me is that most of those fires were from creosote buildup that could have been prevented with more frequent sweeps. I used to think twice a year was fine for my customers but now I'm thinking three times might be smarter, especially for wood stoves. Found this info on the NFPA website under their fire loss statistics section. Has anyone else adjusted their recommendations after seeing hard numbers like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

ross.lily9d ago

Wait does your data show if most of those fires happen in heavy use seasons like deep winter or more year round? Would be useful to know if the third sweep should be timed right before peak burning months. Trying to wrap my head around if a spring and fall and midwinter schedule actually aligns with the real risk patterns.

king.val9d ago

Yeah exactly, my buddy had a chimney fire last January and his last sweep was in October so that third window is no joke at all.

jamie8049d ago

Jumping off what you're getting at @ross.lily, that data actually breaks it down by month and the big spike is December through February, with January being the worst month by far (like 40% of the total fires). So if you're doing a spring and fall sweep, you're missing that midwinter window right when people are really loading up their stoves daily and creosote builds up fast. I'd say a third sweep right around late December or early January would catch that heavy buildup period, especially for folks burning softer woods or not letting their fires burn hot enough. The NFPA report also mentions most fires happen in residential structures between 6 PM and midnight, which makes sense because that's when people stoke the fire before bed and sometimes don't let it burn down enough.