Emergency Smoke-Back & Flue-Blockage Clearing

Light a fire and watch smoke roll back into the room — or worse, see the house fill from a blocked flue — and you've got an emergency, not an inconvenience. A fully blocked chimney means combustion products, carbon monoxide included, have nowhere to go but into your living space. Our crew responds fast to clear active flue blockages and smoke-back, find the real cause, and confirm the chimney drafts safely before we leave.

A flue that suddenly backs smoke into the home is either blocked or has lost its draft. The usual culprits: an animal nest packed into the flue, a collapsed liner, heavy debris, or a cold-air plug in an exterior chimney that reverses the draft on lightoff. Each demands a different fix, and clearing the wrong thing burns time while the house fills with smoke. We diagnose fast — often with a push-camera (CCTV) scan to locate the obstruction or breach precisely — then clear it: extracting the nest or debris, addressing a collapsed liner, or breaking a cold-flue plug and re-establishing draft.

The safety stakes make competence non-negotiable. A blocked flue spilling combustion gas into the home is a carbon monoxide hazard, so confirming the flue actually drafts after clearing — not just that the visible smoke stopped — is part of the response. We verify draft and, where the situation warrants, check for CO so you know the air is safe, not merely clearer. An emergency clear that doesn't confirm safe drafting is only half-done.

Some smoke-back isn't a blockage at all but a draft-establishment problem — a cold exterior flue with a stack-effect reversal that dumps smoke into the room every cold lightoff — which needs priming technique, not a brushing. And a fireplace that smokes because its opening is too large for the flue needs a smoke-guard or opening reducer. Once we've cleared the immediate problem and confirmed safe draft, we tell you what caused it and what makes it permanent — an exclusion cap so the nest doesn't return, a reline if the liner collapsed, a draft correction if it's a cold-flue or sizing issue.