Washington Winter Warning, Not Everything Belongs in the Fireplace

When the weather gets cold, many in the Pacific Northwest are going to go back to our caveman roots when it comes to staying warm, i.e., using fire. And the old mentality of "If it can burn, it'll work" isn't as safe today as it used to be, and we have the details for you below.

A Costly Lesson Learned In Washington

Two years ago, my father's HVAC system went out. He's a pretty handy, handy man and can fix almost anything. The problem is, a lot of things today are not made to "fix" or they're so specialized parts that you need to call specialists to repair them.

After having repair people come out and trying to figure out the problem, not getting it working (but still continuing to charge him for their visits), he had had enough, and went back to using his fireplace.

With his Naches house being built in 1970, the fireplace wasn't up to snuff, so they got an insert, and that worked out well, until the dry wood ran out, and the 'crap' started getting burned.

The air quality in the house was so bad that my family was really worried. The family gathered together to get the job fixed, because the 'crap' that was being burned left a sticky soot all over and clogged up the chimney pipe.

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READ MORE: Washington's New Favorite 'Novelty' Fireplace Courtesy of FALLOUT!

The Long Happy Ending To The Chimney Story

The happy ending to this story is that we replaced the chimney, and eventually got a whole new HVAC system installed, so now the fireplace (insert) is a backup, but man, I wish we knew then what we know now.

So you don't make some of our mistakes, here's a very helpful guide of what NOT to burn when the temps drop, and the house gets cold.

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