Fighting the Fireplace

The last time the kids started a fire in the fireplace, we smelled a lot of smoke in the house. I bought an air ionizer. It is supposed to filter the air and remove things like smoke. So last night it felt cold in the computer room. I decided to start a fire.

I got some small logs off the massive log pile we have in our carport. Crumped up a bunch of newpaper. Little Kat got me the automatic lighter. The paper caught fire nicely. However the logs did not catch fire. Then I put some more paper in there. Fail.

Little Kat bought out the wood bellow that I purchased a while ago. It is a big fan to fan the flames. That did the trick. When we blew air in there, newspaper and wood got real hot and lit up. At first I did not smell any smoke. Check. But this morning there was a bad smoke smell in the house.

The biggest fail was that the flue in the fireplace was all messed up. The metal part of the flue that opens or closes was upside down, and fell down past the opening that holds it up. I spent a lot of time getting that straightened out. No wonder the computer room was cold.