Women's fireplace stinks.

[Rockbottom2910]

Hi all. I live in a street where the houses are quite old but refurbished. Ex military housing. They originally had open fireplaces but most have been taken out, a few people have reinstated. Not this this is overly relevant.

Anyway I have a very good sense of smell usually. . Back in November I kept smelling smoke and it was smoky outside. I noticed it was coming from an older ladies fireplace 2 doors down billowing from chimney. It stank.

Then I got covid and haven't been able to smell it for a month.

But my god my smell is back and I can smell it. She seems to have it on day and night. I can't open my back door as it stinks.

Are fireplaces meant to smell this bad?! Never experienced it before.

Can't control what my neighbours are doing but my god she needs a chimney sweep I think.

Could smell it all night.

No, it's not from the covid. I did get a smoky taste and smell after covid but this is definitely the fireplace again. Dp can smell it too and his sense of smell is usually crap even before covid.

Definitely contact environmental health. It might be horrible for you, but imagine the possible impact on her health?

Like my late MIL she could be burning vegetable peelings, chicken carcasses, god knows what.

We bought a house in the country the owners and neighbors burnt everything outdoors on bonfires food waste, plastics, tins, you think of it they burnt it. One neighbor using car tyres to get everything going when he did gardening work.

His daughter and mates smoked weed at the top of the property which was less offensive

What does it smell like?
Does it smell like she is burning plastic? Or rubbish? Or that it is soot or coal burning? I find some coal really catches the back of your throat.

I'm on team Euphemism...

We have an open fireplace and it needs regular sweeping but that shouldn't be the reason for bad smell.
She might be burning plastic or some cheap fuel, that a CO poisoning hazard (some people throw crisp wrappers into the fire which can cause a blockage in the chimney).
Report it to authorities.

Possibly the fuel she’s burning, could be really poor quality coal or wet logs.