RE: fire

[Norbert Senf <mheat@mha-net.org>]

At 10:43 AM 2000-01-31 -0500, goshawk@gnat.net wrote:
>Just got a report from a friend of mine.
>(Strawboss this is the Debbie's place)
>
>Last week on a cold cold night (cold for middle GA anyway)
>My friends had stoked up the wood burning stove while hosting a
>social event. The wood burning stove was located only a couple of
>inches from the cement stabilzied earth plasted wall. Somewhere
>around 2am the wall started smoking. (snip)
>
>When I ask the fellow, why did you have the stove so close with no
>heat shield or such and he replied that he had heard so much
>about the fire resistance of strawbale.
>
>Thus the moral of the story is :
>fire resistant does not equal fire proof.

It get worse:

There's a chemical process known as pyrolysis that happens to wood (and 
straw, no doubt) over time when it is exposed to heat. One of the effects 
is to lower the ignition point over time. So, if you have a stove too close 
to a combustible, it might be fine for years, and then suddenly ignite one 
day, because the wood (or straw) has pyrolized over time.

Always install the stove according to the terms of its UL listing, or the 
local building code. Drywall is considered a combustible, so you'd have a 
pretty hard time arguing that straw isn't.

Norbert
----------------------------------------
Norbert Senf---------- mheat@mha-net.org-nospam
Masonry Stove Builders	
RR 5, Shawville------- www.heatkit.com		
Quebec J0X 2Y0-------- fax:-----819.647.6082
---------------------- voice:---819.647.5092