Never Put Wood Stove Ashes In This — Do This Instead (Old Fire Chief's Rule)

It's the third week of January and the stove has run day and night for eight days. Saturday morning he cleans it out like he always does: shovels the ash into the plastic five-gallon bucket and sets it on the back porch against the wall of the house. The ash is grey and cold on top. He's done this fifty times. What he can't see is the coal in the middle of that bucket. By four in the afternoon it's melted through the bottom. By six the neighbor is calling it in. In this video, Ray gives you the one rule an old fire chief taught him, ashes go in metal, with a lid, on the ground, away from the house, and then the rest of running a wood stove so the only thing that burns is the wood. In this video: ✓ Why a coal buried in ash stays hot enough to start a fire for three days ✓ The rule: a metal can, a tight lid, on dirt or gravel, ten feet from anything that burns ✓ Never plastic, never cardboard, never the household trash, never the porch or garage ✓ The five steps: let it die down, metal to metal, carry it out, soak it, wait three days ✓ What a warm can is telling you ✓ Never vacuum the ash ✓ Creosote, the annual chimney sweep, and what a chimney fire sounds like ✓ What to do if the chimney is on fire ✓ Dry seasoned wood, and what never goes in the stove ✓ Three feet of clearance and a hearth pad for the ember that jumps ✓ Carbon monoxide: the damper mistake and an alarm on every floor ✓ Ray's forty-dollar stove kit ✓ The overnight burn, and why a smolder is the most dangerous fire The guidance follows NFPA, U.S. Fire Administration and CSIA wood stove and chimney safety recommendations. Ray isn't a fireman or a chimney sweep. Get the chimney inspected by a professional every year. Watch until the end for the one-minute recap in the order you'd do it. Tell me in the comments: What state are you in, and how do you heat with wood?