A Cokeville home went up in flames recently and Lincoln County Fire Warden Kelly Hoffman says even in winter people need to check or clean their chimneys.

The home started out as a chimney fire, but eventually spread to other parts of the home and Hoffman says it was pretty much a loss. However, there were no injuries.

Hoffman says this time of year people have typically burned a lot of wood. He acknowledged most do a pretty good job of cleaning chimneys in the fall, but don’t think about it this time of year.

“But years like this when there is a lot of burning going on,” Hoffman said. “That build up can cause problems.”

He says another aspect they are seeing is many people clean their chimneys, but do not check the connections.

“I’ve seen a lot of those in my 30 years,” Hoffman said. “Where that was a problem too is those connections not being checked.”

He says people just need to make sure those pipes haven’t slipped. What will happen if the connection isn’t true then heat and smoke can get out of that connection, it will gradually char the wood. It can slowly change the composition of that combustible material.

“Like the wood that goes through the wall or wherever,” Hoffman said. “What it does is lowers the ignition temperature of that wood.

“Overtime, if you have that leak, it could take several years, but eventually…instead of that wood burning at a normal temperature, it might drop it 20-30 percent. So the next time you light up a fire, all of a sudden, it’s going to make that take off.”

He knows it’s difficult to check the chimney or clean it with all the snow, but it is the prudent thing to do.

Hoffman says the problem with chimney fires is it burns a while before you notice it. He says that was the case for the Cokeville home as the blaze had been burning for several hours before anyone was able to notice.