8 Firewood Dangers That Bring the Fire Truck to Your House. Number 8 Is Sitting by Your Back Door

Before you light the first fire of the season, walk out to your woodpile with me. I'm Mike Callahan, retired firefighter, twenty-eight years on an engine company, and every fall the same eight woodpile mistakes turned into the same calls: chimney fires, deck fires, burned hands, and families standing in the yard at three in the morning. In this video you'll learn why your woodpile should never touch your house, what hides in the bottom rows, which boards must never go in a fire pit, the hairy vine that sends people to the hospital through smoke alone, why a basement stack is a bad idea, the sound in your chimney that families mistake for the wind, what never goes in a stove, and the ash bucket mistake that empties more houses than all the others put together. Most of these checks take one Saturday, a flashlight, and a pair of gloves. Sources I used for this video: 1. National Fire Protection Association, Educational Messages Desk Reference (heating safety, three-foot rule, ash disposal): https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/project/storefront/catalog/files/home-fire-safety/emac/educationalmessagesdeskreference.pdf 2. U.S. Fire Administration, Discard Ashes Safely: https://www.usfa.fema.gov/gallery/pictographs/pictograph43.html 3. U.S. EPA Burn Wise, burning dry seasoned wood and reducing creosote: https://epa.gov/burnwise/sample-article-burn-wise-health-and-safety-awareness-kit 4. CDC NIOSH, Protecting Yourself from Poisonous Plants (urushiol and burning poison ivy): https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-118 5. U.S. EPA, Chromated Arsenicals (CCA) treated wood and why not to burn it: https://www.epa.gov/node/44693 #firewood #woodstove #poisonivy #woodheat #homestead #oldways