A Dead Animal in the Chimney: Finding It and Getting It Out

How You Know It Is There

The first sign is almost always the smell: a sweet, heavy odor that is strongest with your face near the fireplace opening and weaker across the room. Flies near the fireplace screen or the glass doors are the second sign. Sometimes there was scratching or fluttering in the chimney a few days earlier that then went quiet.

Other chimney smells are different. Soot and creosote smell smoky and sour, and a musty, damp smell after rain points to water. A dead animal smell is the one that stays put rather than coming and going with the weather.

Where It Usually Ends Up

An animal that falls into an uncapped flue or climbs in through a gap drops until something stops it. In a masonry fireplace the layout is set by code, and that layout tells you where to look. Florida Building Code section R1001.6 puts the throat at least 8 inches above the fireplace opening, with the damper and smoke chamber above it, and section R1001.7.1 requires a metal damper at least 8 inches above the opening. Behind the damper, a masonry fireplace may have a ledge called the smoke shelf, and falling debris tends to collect there.

• On the smoke shelf, the ledge behind and above the damper: a likely place, out of sight from the room.
• On top of a closed damper plate, where an animal lands and cannot climb back up.
• At the base of a flue with a cleanout door, which section R1003.17 places within 6 inches of the base of the flue.
• Wedged at an offset or a gap in the flue liner partway up.
• In a prefab fireplace, on top of the fire box or in the chase around the metal chimney, not in the flue itself.

What You Can Safely Check

With the fireplace cold, put on disposable gloves and a dust mask, open the damper slowly with a bucket or bag ready below, and shine a strong flashlight up past the damper toward the smoke shelf. Sometimes the animal drops right onto the hearth when the damper moves. If it does, lift it into a bag with a gloved hand or a shovel, seal the bag and put it in the outdoor trash.

Rodents can carry disease, and the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management lists roof rats among animals implicated in murine typhus, leptospirosis, salmonellosis and rat-bite fever. So do not handle any animal bare-handed, and wash up afterwards even if you wore gloves.

What Not to Do

Do not light a fire to burn it out. A carcass on the smoke shelf partly blocks the flue, so smoke and carbon monoxide come into the room instead of going up, and the smell of burning fur is worse than the smell you started with. The NFPA asks that all fuel-burning equipment be vented to the outside to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning, and a blocked flue is the opposite of that.

Do not pour bleach, spray air freshener or drop chemicals down the flue. They cover the odor without removing the source and leave residue on the masonry. And do not climb onto the roof to look down the chimney; a fall from a roof is far more dangerous than anything in the flue.

How the Removal Is Done

A technician works from the fireplace first, with a drop cloth over the hearth, a light and reach tools that get past the damper onto the smoke shelf. If the animal is higher up, the flue is reached from the top with the right roof equipment. Once it is out, the job is not finished:

• Remove the animal and any nesting material, hair and debris with it.
• Brush and vacuum the smoke shelf, damper and fire box surfaces it touched.
• Sweep the flue if there is nest material or soot packed in.
• Inspect the top for the way it got in: a missing cap, torn screen, or gap at the crown or chase cover.
• Close the entry so it does not happen again.

Getting the Smell Out Afterwards

Odor comes from what the animal left on the masonry, not only from the animal. Once the carcass and debris are out and the surfaces are cleaned, the smell starts to fade. Leave the damper open with a window cracked for a day or two to move air through, and keep glass doors closed between times. If the smell stays strong after cleaning, something is still up there, often a second animal or nest material higher in the flue.

Fabric near the fireplace, such as a rug, curtains or cushions, can hold the odor after the source is gone. Wash or air those separately rather than spraying fragrance over them, so you can tell whether the chimney itself still smells.

Keeping the Next One Out

A chimney cap with a screen is the main prevention. Florida Building Code section R1003.9.2 sets the standard for a spark arrestor screen on a masonry chimney: openings no larger than 1/2 inch, with heat and corrosion resistance equal to 19-gauge galvanized or 24-gauge stainless steel. Keep the damper closed when the fireplace is not in use, and the cleanout door shut.

The removal and the cap are our chimney animal removal and chimney cap replacement work. For rodents that live in the chase, see rats in the chimney.

Nobody enjoys this job, so let our experienced crew handle it: removal, cleanup and a look at how the animal got in. Family-owned, local to Spring Hill and Proudly American, we start with a free inspection and a written estimate before any work, and the hearth is cleaned before we leave, the Proudly American way.

Sources

• 2023 Florida Building Code, Residential, chapter 10: chimneys and fireplaces: R1001.6 throat at least 8 inches above the opening; R1001.7.1 ferrous metal damper at least 8 inches above the opening; R1003.17 cleanout within 6 inches of the base of the flue; R1003.9.2 spark arrestor openings not larger than 1/2 inch, 19-gage galvanized or 24-gage stainless
• NFPA heating safety tip sheet: Fuel-burning equipment vented to the outside to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning
• Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management: roof rat damage identification: Roof rats implicated in murine typhus, leptospirosis, salmonellosis, rat-bite fever and plague