Is a bird's nest or animal in the chimney a fire or carbon monoxide hazard?
Swannanoa's storm recovery frames this. Rebuilt homes are going in with new sealed gas fireplaces and stoves that give wildlife no open flue to enter — but the older Grovemont masonry chimneys that survived often had caps knocked loose, leaving them open to nesting birds and animals. A packed flue is a fire risk near the top and a carbon-monoxide risk below. Have it checked before you light it.
The storm changed the risk profile
Recovery here has meant a wave of new fireplace and stove installations in rebuilt homes, and that's largely good news for this particular hazard — a sealed direct-vent gas unit or a modern stove doesn't hand wildlife an open clay flue to colonize. The homes to watch are the survivors: older Swannanoa Village and Grovemont masonry chimneys from the 1940s through '60s that took storm stress. A cap torn off in high wind turns a protected flue back into an open pipe, and animals find those quickly.
River fog keeps the pressure on
Swannanoa sits in a river valley where fog, cold-air pooling, and damp air are hard on masonry — mortar joints open, crowns crack, and caps rust, all of which give birds and squirrels a way in. Once a nest is packed into the flue, it's tinder near the top for a chimney fire and a blockage below that chokes the draft. On a gas hearth that means carbon monoxide backing into the room, invisible and silent, so a CO detector on every level earns its place.
Inspect first on any storm-affected home
If your chimney went through the storm and hasn't been looked at, treat it as unknown until it's inspected — a compromised flue or a lost cap plus a season's nesting is not something to discover by lighting a fire. We clear the flue, check the structure, and set a stainless cap with animal screen so it stays closed. Gas work is permitted with Buncombe County. We're fifteen minutes east. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Swannanoa
We install and service fireplaces throughout Swannanoa and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes east from our Asheville-area showroom.