Burn It Smart, Nanaimo

Burn it Smart is an education program originally developed by Natural Resources Canada. The goal is to provide practical advice on how to work and maintain a woodstove to minimize the amount of smoke produced while using it.

Burning wood at a high temperature produces almost nothing but carbon dioxide and water vapor. When you allow your fire to smolder it produces blue/grey smoke, which means creosote is forming. Creosote builds up on the inside of your chimney when wood is not burned completely and becomes a highly volatile fuel during a chimney fire.

Healthy and safe wood burning go hand in hand. When the fire produces little or no smoke, both the chimney and the air stay clean. To learn more, watch the following videos.

Videos (courtesy Fraser Basin Council)

Other Resources

• Guide to Residential Wood Heating by CMHC (PDF)
  • printed copies are available by contacting woodstovechangeout@nanaimo.ca

• Health Canada Information on Wood Smoke
• Air Watch Northwest Videos (www.airwatchnorthwest.org)