Liberty Township firefighters smothered a blaze in the flue pipe of a wood burner on Tuesday at a home in the 800 north block of C.R. 200W.

Tom Shapen, assistant chief of the Liberty Township Volunteer Fire Department, told the Chesterton Tribune on Wednesday that firefighters were dispatched to the residence at 7:53 p.m. in response to a report of a chimney fire.

On their arrival, firefighters found that the wood burner’s flue pipe was badly overheated, “cherry red” in fact, Shapen said. Assisted by Chesterton firefighters, who responded under an automatic aid agreement, the LTVFD used an extinguisher with a chemical compound designed to displace oxygen and starve the fire.

Firefighters then waited for the stack to cool and on disassembling it discovered that it was severely blocked by grease and carbon build-up, which had ignited, Shapen said.

Firefighters were forced to remove some dry wall around the flue pipe to check for extension.

No one was injured but Shapen preliminarily estimated damage—mostly the result of overhaul—at a couple of thousand dollars.

The LTVFD cleared the scene around 9 p.m.

In what proved to be a busy eight hours or so, the LTVFD responded to a second fire early Wednesday, around 3:55 a.m., after a disassembled barn in the 1000 north block of C.R. 400E in Jackson Township caught fire.

The LTVFD, again assisted by the CFD, found on their arrival a fully engulfed pile of debris in the 60’ x 40’ footprint of a barn, Shapen said.

Turns out, the property owners had demolished the barn but at some point a small rubbish fire started nearby ignited the large pile of barn wood.

The LTVFD, CFD, and Westville FD, employing a tanker shuttle, used 13,000 gallons of water to douse the blaze.

No one was injured and there was no monetary damaged, Shapen said.

The LTVFD cleared the scene around 7:15 a.m.

Posted 11/15/2012