Mideast crisis fuels demand for firewood, wood stoves

In the wake of the crisis in the Persian Gulf and concern about the availability of heating oil, the demand for firewood and wood stoves in Maine has skyrocketed.

People who sell firewood are having trouble filling orders.

“Our phone is ringing steady with orders,” said Nellie Tripp of Frankfort. Her husband, James Tripp Sr., sells firewood.

“We don’t have enough wood to fill the orders,” Mrs. Tripp said. “We’re much busier than usual. We’ve had calls from as far away as Wiscasset.”

According to Mrs. Tripp, people will “beg” for her husband to haul them wood. “They don’t care about the price,” she said.

Marty Perkins of Charleston echoes Tripp’s remarks. During the last four weeks, he has sold 350 cords of wood. During that period, he normally would sell between 100 and 150 cords.

Perkins says that the increased demand comes from people installing wood stoves and from people who plan to burn more wood this year.

“We normally sell more wood in the fall, but not like this year,” said Marilyn Storman of Hudson, who answers the telephone to take orders for her husband, Ray. “It’s just crazy,” she said. “We’re booked ahead two weeks with orders.”

During recent years, as the price of heating oil declined, the percentage of Maine homeowners who burned wood also declined. According to surveys conducted for the state by Northeast Research of Orono, the percentage of Maine households burning at least some wood declined from about 56 percent in the winter of 1980-1981 to 34 percent last winter.

This means that many families that haven’t burned wood during recent years still have some kind of wood-burning capacity in their houses.

Bryan Forsing, manager of the Fence & Flue store in Bangor, says that a lot of customers are buying stovepipe and door gaskets to hook up stoves that haven’t been used for a few years.

But Forsing also is selling stoves. “People don’t want to get caught with just oil as a source of heat,” he said.

There are four Black Stove Shops located in Maine. The company maintains two installation teams, based in Augusta, that travel around the state to install new wood stoves. Their schedule is full until mid-October. And, according to James McGrath, a salesman at the company’s Brewer store, the crews work from early morning until late night.

“They’re swamping us,” McGrath said of his store’s customers.

John Flumerfelt, director of energy planning for the state, said that the increased demand for wood was predictable. “The use of wood is directly related to the price of fuel oils,” he said.

“It’s good that Maine has an indigenous heating source like wood to supplement fuel needs,” Flumerfelt said.

But the state official warns that it takes a lot of awareness to burn wood safely. People should make sure that stoves have good clearances from combustible items, he said.

Homeowners also should be aware of the dangers of burning green wood, Flumerfelt said. A lot of the wood being burned this year is likely to be green, because many sellers of firewood are selling wood that was recently cut.

The city of Bangor has an ordinance requiring that homeowners burning wood get permission from the city. The permit is issued after an inspection by a city official.