WWTBAM Bored

A gal we know from just outside Columbus was here today - she told us her fireplace exploded yesterday. Her hubby and son were asleep in front of the gas fireplace, the fireplace was on and with all the wind we were having they think the fumes built up inside the flue and caused an explosion. Pretty powerful explosion. Blew doors off hinges, soot everywhere, had to call the fire dept. to put out the fire (no windows broke however) but several walls were blown off the foundation?!?! with cracks everywhere in the sheet rock on both floors.

No one was hurt.

They have the adjuster, builder and fireplace manufacturer meeting them this afternoon to assess the damages. The house is five years old.
She said she knows of another family that this has happened to twice!
Anyone ever hear of such a thing?!? We have a propane fireplace in the house we just moved into and now I am spooked to use it.

Yikes!
So glad no one was injured.


I have one of those fireplaces, and a builder I don't trust. Whom would one call to have this checked out, i wonder?


t.

5LD wrote:A gal we know from just outside Columbus was here today - she told us her fireplace exploded yesterday. Her hubby and son were asleep in front of the gas fireplace, the fireplace was on and with all the wind we were having they think the fumes built up inside the flue and caused an explosion. Pretty powerful explosion. Blew doors off hinges, soot everywhere, had to call the fire dept. to put out the fire (no windows broke however) but several walls were blown off the foundation?!?! with cracks everywhere in the sheet rock on both floors.

No one was hurt.

They have the adjuster, builder and fireplace manufacturer meeting them this afternoon to assess the damages. The house is five years old.
She said she knows of another family that this has happened to twice!
Anyone ever hear of such a thing?!? We have a propane fireplace in the house we just moved into and now I am spooked to use it.

I've heard of fires in chimneys from creosote buildup but that is mostly with wood stoves.

I don't think the wind was the issue. Wind would actually draw more air out of the chimney not cause the fumes to build up.

I think this is more likely to have been a lack of combustion air in the firebox which meant that the gas was not burning there like it was supposed to and then it ignited in the chimney. A gas fire should be burning almost all of the fuel so that the fumes are pretty much non-flammable. I'd be looking for how the fireplace was supposed to be drawing in air for combustion.

Was it a prefab fireplace with gas logs? Was it vented or unvented? I would think it would have been installed so that wind wouldn't cause a build up of gas that would result in an explosion. Something is not right, but I'm not sure what.

I have worked in insurance for 30 years and have never had a claim resulting from something like this. I don't think this is a common occurence.

I have a regular masonry fireplace with gas logs. I still have the fireplace inspected every year.

I don't think you have anything to be afraid of it was installed properly.

I'm glad no one was hurt, especially since they were there when it happened. Very scary thing indeed.

5LD wrote:A gal we know from just outside Columbus was here today - she told us her fireplace exploded yesterday. Her hubby and son were asleep in front of the gas fireplace, the fireplace was on and with all the wind we were having they think the fumes built up inside the flue and caused an explosion. Pretty powerful explosion. Blew doors off hinges, soot everywhere, had to call the fire dept. to put out the fire (no windows broke however) but several walls were blown off the foundation?!?! with cracks everywhere in the sheet rock on both floors.

No one was hurt.

They have the adjuster, builder and fireplace manufacturer meeting them this afternoon to assess the damages. The house is five years old.
She said she knows of another family that this has happened to twice!
Anyone ever hear of such a thing?!? We have a propane fireplace in the house we just moved into and now I am spooked to use it.

I don't understand how two people sleeping next to the fireplace were uninjured by an explosion that did so much damage.

I suspect there was a gas leak that ignited from another source in a different part of the house.

Hoping to instill some confidence, I'm sitting six feet from our natural gas fireplace right now. I'm with Kay, I think if it was installed properly you're fine. I've never heard of the situation you describe, and lots of people in our area have gas fireplaces.

Good luck to your friends getting the mess cleaned up.

We have a natural gas fireplace that came with the house. Now I am worried to use it. Most of the time we just use it to roast marshmallows to make smores.

Yikers.

I asked Sting if he had ever heard of such a thing and he said no. He also added that he would like to be told how the investigation goes, as he plans to have one installed at some date in the future.

We have mostly 'real fireplaces' here - not so good at warming places and dirty - people are just starting to get on the gas fireplace bandwagon.