Local woman fills house with smoke, firefighters teach fireplace safety

"Someone trying to light a fire," Strawn said. "The chimney is dirty, its not drawing like its supposed to."

            This is what local firefighters found this morning when and elderly woman called 9-1-1 after trying to light a fire in her home.

"It probably didn't help some of the things she was burning," Strawn said. "Mostly wood but there was a candle in there, so that doesn't help."

            Lubbock firefighter Steve Strawn said one of the most important things about lighting a fire is making sure it has a place to go.

"You want to make sure the damper is open with the gas logs,  because if it is closed your not going to know." Strawn said. "If it's closed you'll get smoke with gas logs, you'll get carbon monoxide, so its kind of a safety issue. It can hurt some of the older people, people with lung problems, it takes a while to recover from stuff like that."

            Butch Weber a local chimney sweeper said a chemical build up is what causes most chimney fires.

"Creosote builds up on the flume walls," Weber said. "Melts when it gets hot and it starts to drip down. That's when it gets ignited by the fire down in the fire box and carries it all the way through the flue."

Strawn said before you light a fire this season there are quite a few things that should be checked.  

"You need to make sure the fireplace the chimney is clean," Strawn said. 'There are a lot of people out there that do chimney cleans. Make sure the flue is open."

            Weber said one hundred dollars and thirty minutes will save people a lot of trouble and maybe even their lives.

"They are more prominent than what people know and it's just so preventable," Weber said.