Maltby stresses that house fires caused by improper installation of a wood burner need not happen. It's money well spent, it's like insurance. Installing a wood stove requires a municipal building permit in most parts of the country. John Gulland developed the reference manuals that became the basis of a national system for training inspectors and installers of wood burning appliances. For several reasons that's a bad idea.
People often think of wood burning as a kind of folk technology.
Well it can be done simply, but that's not the way to get it done safely. Recently, wood stove manufacturers have spent millions of dollars developing combustion systems that burn wood more completely and cleanly. Chimney systems have also improved. That's lead to stoves and fireplaces that produce one-tenth the smoke that older fireplaces did. That means less of the creosote that causes chimney fires.