HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) — As cooler weather moves in, you may be thinking about firing up those woodstoves or chimneys. It’s important to make sure they are ready for the winter and Battalion Chief and Deputy Fire Marshall Mike Armstrong with the Harrisonburg Fire Department has tips to make sure no incidents happen in your home this winter.

Chimneys create a creosote, which is like a tar and therefore burns like a tar. “Even if you have the most solid masonry chimney, that’s a foot thick, that heat will eventually come through there, eventually touch a piece of combustible material, a 2×4 or 4×4, something that’s up against there, and then there’s where your problem starts,” says Armstrong. Professional cleaning crews often use a camera to ensure there’s no cracks for fires to spread.

Armstrong noted that the fires can sometimes be heard to extinguish. “If we have to introduce water directly into that [chimney] because we can’t get it out, then we are cracking blocks and in essence we end up, to get it out, completely destroying the chimney.”

“I grew up a farm boy. I’ve got brushes. I can clean my own chimney. I don’t have a camera. I can’t run a camera down my chimney to see that there’s no cracks, that there’s no deficiencies, that there’s something else going on. So even I have it done professionally so that we can see those things,” the Battalion Chief adds. He also notes that depending on insurance companies, they may want to see documentation that you have had a professional clean and sign off.

Armstrong says you can burn green wood and wet wood, but it creates creosote, very quickly, if you don’t burn dry wood. He also adds that if you’re using any solid fuel or fuel fire device like gas, oil, natural gas, LP, you need to have a carbon monoxide detector. If you use natural gas, you should have a fuel gas detector in your home.

Battalion Chief Deputy and Fire Marshall Mike Armstrong says if you are ever unsure of something, to call your local fire department.