At first glance it may seem silly to suggest a flue fire could be dangerous: after all, the flue is connected to the fireplace, which is designed to contain a fire, right?

Although fireplace hearths use specialized bricks and mortar designed to withstand direct flames, flues and liners are instead tasked with whisking away smoke (not flames), so they are typically constructed with only regular brick and mortar.

Worse yet, regular brick and mortar are especially vulnerable to the bizarrely hot temperature of a creosote fire (which burns as high as 2,200 degrees--almost five times higher than the burning temperature of mere wood!)

Indeed, flue fires reach temperatures intense enough to severely damage mortar, bricks and tiles. So even if the house survives a flue fire, newly-created cracks and fissures may now expose wooden building materials to flames in any subsequent chimney ("flue") fires.

Indeed, as over 15,500 yearly house fires started by chimneys and wood stoves each year confirm (Consumer Product Safety Commission data), a flue fire is very serious business.