These are the basic procedures in operating a wood-stove. As in anything else, skill will come with practice, and with skill comes efficient operation. The nice thing about operating a woodstove efficiently is that this is the safest mode of operation, too. Safety is basic to every step in heating with wood. Here are more hints for safely working with and around woodstoves:

1. Keep it clean: Make sure your chimney cleanout door (if you have one) is sealed tightly, since extraneous air hinders the draft. I have never seen one that did seal well. They are usually crudely made cast-iron doors and frames. I simply calk mine around the cracks. When I need to shovel out the soot after cleaning the chimney, I gouge the calking com­pound loose until the door will open. Later, it can be sealed again.

2. Watch For Ash: Do not let ashes accumulate to excess in the stove, or embers may fall out onto the floor.

3.Don’t Poke: Do not poke around on the fire too much. Certain woods react by spitting out sparks.

4. Careful with water: Exercise extreme caution when putting a pot of cold water on an iron stove. If you accidentally spill cold water onto the hot stove, the stove may crack and be damaged permanently.

5. Watch hot liquid: Conversely, always be careful when taking a pot of stew or other boiling liquid off the stove. Almost every grandparent can tell of someone in the family who was burned by hot spills.

6. Children and Stoves don’t mix: Children should not play around a radiant stove. The convection heaters with cabinets are much safer with children in the house. Some people even put a little wrought-iron railing around a radiant stove to keep the little ones back. A raised hearth also helps, especially if it extends a considerable distance around the stove (18 or more inches). The best practice is to impress upon your children the dangers of a stove. This is one thing they should be taught not to use until they are mature.

7. Smoke alarms: Buy one or more smoke alarms. Some are expen­sive, but there is a lot of competition in this mar­ket, so you may find them on sale at quite reasonable prices.

8. Fire extinguishers: One or two fire extinguishers are also essential, especially if you live in a rural area or are other­wise outside the jurisdiction of a city fire depart­ment. If you cook a lot on a woodstove, you will need a special fire extinguisher for grease fires, although a large box of bicarbonate of soda will also help.

9. Fire safety plan: Agree on a meeting place outside the house in case a fire occurs. Many people have died going back into a flaming home to try to rescue loved ones who were safely outside on the other side of the house. It would be good to have an actual fire drill.

10. Ladders: Rope ladders are necessary for escape from upstairs bedrooms.

11. A stove is not a dryer: Do not dry clothes over the top of a stove. Buy a fold-up drying rack for such purposes and place it at least 36 inches away from the stove. The clothes will be dry by morning.

12. Keep watch: Never be away from the stove for any length of time with the loading door open. Wood can spark, logs may shift, and coals fall out.

13. Ice cream salt: Buy a large quantity of ice cream salt to throw on the fire if a chimney fire occurs. If you have an airtight stove and your cleanout door is sealed, a chimney fire may be put out or at least con­trolled by closing the draft entirely.

14. Remove soot: Use a chemical soot remover regularly, according to directions.

15. Do not burn trash: The few Btu gained are not worth the attendant soot buildup.