We had one stuck in ours last week, Steve lit some newspaper and it dropped down coughing so he put it outside, something ate it in the night though!! Similar thing happened with our other fireplace except it did not die and it went everywhere around the house until we opened a window.. We did have a cowl on one chimney pot but then started to get smoke in the room, when we had the experts in, some one had put the wrong cowl on so now its off completely and we never get smoke, both our fires work very well....we have collected tons of wood too so unless we move before the winter sets in, loads of fires to keep us warm