Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for October 19, 2023

Ed can just divert water from his attic irrigation system to the fire. Problem solved.

So Crankshaft is too dumb to have the creosote buildup cleaned out of his chimney? That’s the only way you can have a chimney fire, given the awkward fact that bricks don’t burn.

“Thank god we live in a 24 hour constant surveillance state with cameras in every home!” (firefighter looks around nervously for cameras)

Cranky’s cleaning it now.

The chimney looks like a volcano. Leave it to Ed, he never does his fires halfway.

…a Crankshaft chimney fire is as much a fall tradition as pumpkin spice…

Fire isn’t funny. Neither is spying inside a resident’s home – even Crankshaft’s.

Cool, Ed lights up the sky.

And their house insurance premium rises to $47, 206/month.

Hope they did not bet on it!!!!!

Wow, what a surprise, good old Crankshaft screwed the pooch once again. Who would have ever thunk it?

I’ll be honest, here, that’s not a bad drawing of a firetruck.

So*… a technical question: does a fire clean out the creosote deposits in the chimney (assuming it doesn’t burn down the house)? I ask because Tom runs this gag every year. If the fire does burn out the creosote deposits, this means Ed manages to re-pollute his chimney in less than a year. Is he having a big smoky fire every night or what?

Or… is Batty to lazy to differentiate between a chimney fire (creosote deposits) and just a big honkin’ inferno in the fireplace?

*have to start with “So…” because it’s Batiuk.

It is SO!

If you over-stock the fuel you can have flames come up the outside of the fireplace, up the mantle, especially if it is windy. I will admit I inadvertently did this by using two artificial logs at one time. No fire in the house, just a real cardio workout for about 10 seconds.

Haha! (＾▽＾)