by Orion Safety Products - CSIA Approved Chimney Fire Extinguisher - Safe, Quick and Easy - Stops Chimney Fires in Homes in Under 22 Seconds

It was 15 degrees out this morning so I thought I'd burn the stove a little hotter than usual to warm the place up. I even added a few pieces of nut coal to help things along...I cleaned the grate so the air was really flowing, then added a single log. I burn hard wood and the stuff I have now is really dry so I've been a negligent with my creosote removal schedule (only used it once in 6 weeks of burning).Anyway, I put the log on, opened the air up and then remembered I had to hook my dog up outside, got outside and remembered I had a few other things to do out there. Five minutes later, I come in and the stove is over 500 degrees which for me is REAL hot. At this point there is no chimney fire so I shut down the stove and the flue damper and have a seat to keep an eye on it. As I'm sitting there with the stove and all flu dampers completely shut down, the flu thermometer starts going up, and up and up. I have single wall 6 inch pipe inside so I just have a magnetic flu thermometer that I've learned to keep just above the flu damper since that's where it seems to get the hottest the quickest.So as I'm watching, OVER ABOUT A TWO MINUTE PERIOD, the thermometer goes up, into the caution zone, through the caution zone (the pipe is turning RED now), I'm hoping that since it's shut down, it will put itself out since it doesn't have very much air, but instead, now it's going into the danger zone, (the pipe is getting REDDER over a larger area now), then the magnetic thermometer looses it's magnetism, and falls off the pipe (metal looses it's magnetism at around 1400 degrees, now a small section of the pipe 2 feet above the stove is getting WHITE HOT).I had gone as far as actually practicing lighting this flare during the off season, and had my wife take it out of the box, take the cap off, and go through the motion of lighting it several times so she'd be ready if we ever needed it. Believe me, your house is one the line, you don't want your first chimney fire to be your first time familiarizing yourself with this product!When I saw white on the pipe, I popped the cap, it lit on the first strike, I opened the door and threw it in front of the log, then I shut the door, stepped back and said a prayer...Within about 15 seconds the white hot area was gone, by 25 seconds the red area was rapidly getting smaller, and by 45 seconds the red area was gone completely. The chimney fire was out. The flare burned for a little bit after that. I had another flare on standby but didn't need it.Understand that while this thing does an excellent job with chimney fires, it probably wont put the fire in your wood box out completely though it will knock it down significantly. What it appears to do is stop the chimney fire, which stops the Venturi effect of supercharging the air intake to the fire in the firebox, which then allows you to hopefully shut things down, and regain control of your stove and chimney.If your stove is anything like mine, once the overheat process is started, it can take 30 minutes to slowly bring it back down to regular temperature I learned after buying my stove that for some reason, you can't COMPLETELY shut off the air to the fire box. In my opinion, the maker of my stove allows too much air to the fire at even the minimum air setting but that's another subject.As a side note, I really recommend buying an ifrared touchless thermometer https://www.amazon.com/ThermoPro-TP30-Thermometer-Temperature-AdjustableI keep mine on the table beside me and use it ALL THE TIME to keep tabs on my stove and my pipe.Also, make sure you AND EVERYONE IN YOUR HOUSE knows exactly how to light this flare BEFORE you have a chimney fire. It'll save your house if you do.My flares DID NOT come with a manufacture date. Manufacturer says they are good for 4 years. I bought it two years ago, I'm back to order 4 more and will date them and store them in a cool dry place during the off season and somewhere very close to the stove during wood burning season...

Thankfully I can’t review the product since I have not had to use! But it is an imeasurable safety net to have if you use a stove for heat.

I've never had to use this product, but it's on the ready next to our Woodstock. Directions seem straight forward, but you do need to know hiw to use this product.

We purchased this just in case we have a flu fire. This will hopefully snuff it out before the fire department would arrive.

Fast shipping on a great product.

First, they work great.Unfortunately, I had to use them for a woodstove chimney fire.Here is what I learned.I have no idea what the instruction " drop along side fire " means.Do some people have tiny little fires in their woodstoves?There is nowhere in my stove that is not on fire.I threw two in and watched them burn.Stuffed a rag in the air intake, used a dry chemical extinguisher on one small spot ( you will never put the fire out in a woodstove with an extinguisher ) got a small spot out and put my other two chimfex sticks in. That put the chimney fire out.Next time, I bought 36 Lbs of baking soda and put it in 6 , gallon size ziplock bags. I will throw the bags in, they will cover the whole woodstove. Fire will melt the bags releasing the baking soda. Even if they don't put the whole fire out they will put enough out so I can throw in the chimfex. I don't want to dump the baking soda from a bucket because the door would be open longer and feed a lot of oxygen to the chimney fire.As for the problem everyone is having trying to figure out when they expire, in the old days, they printed the manufacture date on the stick. Then they printed it on the box. Then they put a sticker on the box and now, these have no date on them and chimfex offers the very unhelpful advice of, " best if used within 60 months of purchase ". So chimfex could use the one you just bought in the warehouse for 10 years to prop a door open then ship it to this retailer and you won't know it expired 5 years ago until you try to use it.If they ever get a competitor that prints the date of manufacture on them, I will stop buying chimfex, but for now, they are the best way to put out a chimney fire.Buy several over several years, increases your chances of getting one that has not expired.As for how to use it, take it out of the box, take it out of the bag ( you don't want it to absorb moisture, leave it in the bag and box until needed) pull cap off, pull top off of cap, there is a striker pad like one the side of a box of matches and a head like the head of a match on the top of the chimfex stick, strike the cap across the top of the chimfex stick, it ignites like a road flare. Light it in front of where you care going to use it and put it immediately. It smokes and stinks.Then get out of the house and call the fire department.

Piece of mind if burning wood and coal two chimneys at once follow directions if theres a fire you'll hear roaring alot louder than first building a coal fire. Wood furnaces are built with chambers to prevent it just used seasoned 8 to 14 percent DRY wood in it use creosote remover every week for wood and soot for coal stoves. The sweeping log is not for metal liners unless its rated for both coal and wood. Recommends get fire blankets too to shield opening the door of a fire chief or shelter wood furnace you are the first responder it can be out in the chimney before fd gets there unless it lit the hose wall or roof fallow manual. Thanks

I bought this after our neighbor had a flew fire. Cost them $7,000 to reline their chimney.This would have put it right out.Read the instruction.Hopefully I never have to use it.