NO JOB TOO SOOTY FOR CHIMNEY SWEEP

Running brushes down a chimney is easier than trying to run them up a chimney. Kathy Trimble of Burfordville, a chimney sweep for 15 years, says some chimneys are so clogged residue must be knocked loose with a pole before the brushes can be used.

There's something old-worldly about chimney sweeps. Their traditional garb of black top hat and tails dates to 19th century England. They were colorful characters in novels by Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen of that era.

In the 1960s, Walt Disney Studios made "Mary Poppins," which helped to popularize, romanticize, even mysticize the agile roof climbers.

Kathy Trimble of Burfordville, a chimney sweep for the past 15 years, dresses the part when she calls on her customers. She says her top hat "is really old, it's seen a lot of action," and the kids really like it.

"I always wear the top hat and tails before I start a job," she says. "But the hat gets in the way if I'm in a fireplace, and the tails gets too hot in the summer ... but people like it."

Trimble says the legendary clothing got its start in England. Chimney sweeps were very poor, whereas undertakers weren't. The undertakers would throw away their used top hats and tails, and chimney sweeps would "sweep them up."

The sweeps, according to folklore, liked the black clothing because it didn't show the soot, which is plentiful in that line of work.

Trimble, who was born in Pennsylvania, moved to the area in 1974. She and her husband took jobs on towboats that ran the Midwest river systems. She was a cook and he was a deck hand.

"But for about 3 1/2 years we were always on different boats and would spend 30 days at a time apart," she said. "We were looking to start a business that we could work at together."

The two were reading "Mother Earth News" magazine one day in 1978 and they noticed an article about how to start a chimney sweep business. They sent away for information.

"It sounded like a neat idea so we retired from the river life. We bought equipment and kind of practiced on our friends' chimneys," said Trimble, laughing. "And we practiced on our own chimney until we felt competent."

The first few years were rather meager in terms of business. Her husband started driving a truck part-time to supplement their income. Then he took to the road full-time while his wife kept chimney sweeping.

Eventually, she acquired enough regular customers to keep her busy; occasionally she'd hire help. Nowadays, she's scaled back and works about three days a week. She'll clean three to five chimneys a day.

In the summer she offers discounts to her customers, "so I'm not as swamped in the fall."

Before cleaning a chimney Trimble lays a drop cloth inside the fireplace. Then she brings in an assortment of steel wire brushes and a large vacuum cleaner with hose.

She uses the brushes to break loose soot and creosote in the fire box, then in the smoke chamber above. Although brushes can be pushed up the chimneys to clean the walls, Trimble prefers to climb to the roof and work downward.

Sometimes, however, if the roof is too steep and the chimney is too high, work has to be done from inside the house.

"It takes a lot to scare me, but there are those cases when the roof is a bit too steep," she admits.

While the chimney is being brushed the vacuum runs to remove the impediments from the work area.

Trimble says many homeowners who clean their own fireplace don't realize there's a smoke shelf behind the damper. If it isn't cleaned, creosote will gather there and become a fire hazard.

"They just don't know it's there and it's hard to reach anyway," she said. "It (the creosote) can cause a chimney fire that can cause major damage."

It takes an average of about an hour-and-a-half to sweep a chimney clean.

Trimble uses a respirator when cleaning. A kind of medical mask, it filters out the dust and soot. Some respirators come with oxygen tanks, but Trimble says the apparatus is too cumbersome to use in small places.

She advises that people who burn wood have their chimneys inspected regularly. If wood is the major source of heat in a home, she thinks the chimney should be cleaned annually.

Burning green, unseasoned wood leaves the most residue, says Trimble. She advises wood be acquired ion the summer, kept dry and allowed to air out -- to season.

People who burn gas in a fireplace need to be aware, says Trimble, that carbon monoxide can back up into the room if the flue becomes blocked.

"If they don't have screens or caps on their flues, birds will nest in there. I have cleaned out huge bird nests ... it's unbelievable."

Trimble says she and her husband recently bought a house that had 4 feet of bird nests in the chimney.

Some cleaning jobs can take up to four hours. She'll get calls from people whose chimneys won't draw air anymore. On those, the brushes are useless until enough residue can be knocked loose to create a hole.

"I have to use a pole to knock the stuff loose, and punch a little hole down from the top. I takes a lot of force. Then I use a small brush to work the hole bigger, and work up to bigger brushes until it's all gone."

She said last year she cleaned a chimney that was so clogged "you couldn't drop a nickle down it." She thought the task might be impossible to accomplish, but she kept with it even though "there was a really terrible smelling creosote." She says some chimneys smell worse than others.

The best part of her job is meeting people. She says she has a lot of interesting, friendly customers.

She recalls cleaning the chimney of two sisters who live outside Jackson. The sisters were very independent and wanted to clean the chimney themselves -- using butcher knives.

"Of course, that wouldn't work, so I cleaned the chimney and afterwards we all had lunch together."

Trimble says her chimney sweeping days are numbered. She's going to hang up her top hat and tails, or pass them along to someone who might buy her business. In the meantime, however, she's looking for an apprentice, someone to continue the centuries old tradition.