Stove

Q. Is my black-painted potbelly stove purchased several years ago at a flea market valuable? It's 57 inches high and 27 inches wide, and was made by Southard, Robertson Co.A. Your freshly painted wood- or coal-burning parlor stove was made around 1910 in Peekskill, N.Y. A dealer likely would pay about $150 for it in its present condition, said vintage stove restorer and dealer David Erickson, of Erickson's Antique Stoves, 2 Taylor St., Littleton, Mass. 01460, (508) 486-3589. The two skirts around its middle, ring at the top, and finial on the cover originally were nickel-plated.

A tea kettle left on a stove in a fourth-floor apartment caused a three-alarm fire on Friday night that displaced 100 seniors from a complex in Northwest Baltimore and caused an estimated $280,000 in damage, according to fire investigators. No one was injured in the blaze that broke out shortly before 11 p.m. in the garden-style apartment complex in the Cheswolde neighborhood, in the 6300 block of Red Cedar Place. Residents were taken to a nearby condominium complex, and the fire was confined to two apartments.

Baltimore County fire investigators have determined that neither the kitchen stove nor the furnace sparked the blaze in a Dundalk apartment that killed a mother and four daughters Sept. 28. Relatives of Michele Ferguson, the mother, said after the fire that she had been using to stove to heat the house -- in the 6800 block of Dunbar Road -- because the furnace wasn't working properly. But Capt. Glenn Blackwell, a department spokesman, said yesterday that investigators "know the stove top, the oven and the furnace were not involved."

Investigators have determined that a three-alarm fire Tuesday in an Owings Mills townhouse complex was sparked by an unattended stove. Damage from the fire, which spread to a dozen other townhouses, was estimated at more than $1 million. The fire at 15 Old Coach Lane, which was reported about 2 p.m., prompted a response by about 80 firefighters with some 40 fire engines, ladder trucks and other equipment. "The fire required additional units so that crews could rotate on a regular basis and find relief from the heat," a statement from the Baltimore County Fire Department said Wednesday.

A Taneytown man using an acetylene torch to warm the inside of a wood-burning stove while he was painting it was seriously injured yesterday when the stove exploded and went through the roof, state police said.The victim, whose name was withheld by police, was flown to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore by a state police MedEvac helicopter.Cpl. Kerin Anders of the Westminster barracks said the man was working in a barn behind a house in the 4200 block of Baptist Road about 4:15 p.m. when the torch went out while he was using it to warm the inside of the stove so paint would adhere to the metal.

Two people were burned seriously yesterday on Rock Creek in Pasadena when the cooking stove on their boat exploded and engulfed the vessel in flames, according to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.Earl Christian, 50, of Catonsville, was refueling an alcohol stove in the cabin of his Sea Ray boat when the vapors ignited.Fire officials said Mr. Christian was burned over 25 percent of his body, with second-degree burns on both legs and feet and his right hand.He was flown by state police helicopter to the burn unit at Washington Hospital Center.

A natural retaining wall, a new Euro-style stove in a sleek modern design and a high-powered home whirlpool bath were among the products shown to about 5,000 homebuilders and industry professionals recently at a trade show in Timonium sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Maryland.Permacrib is offering what it hopes will be the natural alternative to concrete retaining walls. The Permacrib product is a timber retaining wall system that is assembled like a toy log cabin.Made of southern yellow pine, the wood barrier is assembled in an interlocking design that can be built as a solid wall or with open slats to allow room for plants to grow inside the wall.

There's a primal wonder to smoked food — that such depth of flavor can come from so simple a technique. And then, of course, there's the lure of the sunny afternoon spent in a lawn chair with a cold beer while you're waiting, patiently, for the Weber to work its magic. But what if it starts raining? The audacity of the weather! Of course, not all smoking needs to be done outdoors. Find a large roasting pan. Grab a cooling rack, some heavy foil and a baking tin for a makeshift drip container.

WOOD-BURNING stoves provide two kinds of heat: radiated and conducted. Both contribute to the warmth and well-being you get from a fire, but both carry the potential hazard of overheating, even setting ablaze, anything that gets too close for too long.Radiated heat comes through the air -- it's what makes your face glow when you sit near the stove. Conducted heat is more direct -- the warmth the stove transfers to the surface it is sitting on, for instance.Radiated heat can become conducted heat if it warms a nearby surface -- say, an ordinary wall -- and conveys heat to whatever is behind the surface -- in the case of the wall, to the studs behind the drywall.

POLICE* Spencer Gardens: Burglars stole a stove from a house under construction in the 300 block of E. Howard Road on Tuesday.* Fox Chase: Someone stole a stove and a microwave oven from a house in the 8100 block of Silver Fox Court on Monday.

Joseph M. Bolewicki Jr., an appliance dealer who was recalled as the "last of the old-school Highlandtown retail giants," died July 21 of cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 84 and lived in Northeast Baltimore. "He ran a great neighborhood business," said Patrick Michael McCusker, owner of Nacho Mama's restaurant in Canton. "His store brought me back in time. When you bought an appliance from him, you also bought a piece of his character." Born in Baltimore, he grew up in Canton and attended St. Brigid's Parochial School and was a 1944 Loyola High School graduate.

Cisco Nochera figured he'd be closer to reopening by now. After the Feb. 3 fire that destroyed the center he runs for students with special needs, the retired Anne Arundel County public schools teacher contacted his insurance company, hoping for the money to rebuild. And he continued to do the work he had always done at the Cisco Center, his small nonprofit institute for developmentally disabled kids. But now, instead of seeing 45 kids a week in the rented bungalow in Pasadena where the center was located, he and his wife, Carla, a speech and language pathologist, are working with fewer children inside a single room at another day care center in Millersville.

There's a primal wonder to smoked food — that such depth of flavor can come from so simple a technique. And then, of course, there's the lure of the sunny afternoon spent in a lawn chair with a cold beer while you're waiting, patiently, for the Weber to work its magic. But what if it starts raining? The audacity of the weather! Of course, not all smoking needs to be done outdoors. Find a large roasting pan. Grab a cooling rack, some heavy foil and a baking tin for a makeshift drip container.

Question: Can I use the ash from wood stove pellets on my plants? My friends say the glue that holds the pellets together is unnatural and unsafe to use. Answer: If the pellet particles are bound together by lignin, a natural component of wood, as is commonly done, then they should be safe to use. Check the label on the pellet bag. If the label does not answer your question about pellet composition, then contact the manufacturer to...

Jessie Thomas of Ellicott City sent in a request for a recipe for an "old-fashioned" beef stew. Mildred Wise of Baltimore shared a recipe she says she has been using for more than 50 years for beef stew that sounds like what Thomas is looking for. It is a basic recipe, nothing fancy, but tried and true. Her recipe instructions have the stew cooked atop the stove in a Dutch oven. I have found that beef stew works just as well when made in a slow cooker or low oven. You can follow the same basic instructions, but if using a slow cooker, brown the meat on the stove top and then transfer it to the slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients.

Managers of an Essex townhouse community troubled by carbon monoxide leaks say the complex should be rid of the dangerous gas by week's end, after stoves are adjusted. Baltimore County officials and firefighters set up a temporary command center at the Cove Village complex Tuesday, and workers will spend two days investigating what they say are faulty stoves in several of the 299 units. Officials say the management company has agreed to replace gas stoves with electric models over time.

POLICE LOG* King's Contrivance: 8700 block of Carriage Hill Drive: Fire caused $8,000 damage to a house when food was left unattended while cooking on a stove at about 6 p.m. Thursday.

Although many collectors and dealers may pooh-pooh the theory that certain antiques or collectibles are thought to be unsafe, others take such matters very seriously and want to avoid any danger or mishaps.Old heating devices such as steel ranges and over-the-burner stove-top ovens were sometimes insulated with asbestos to conserve heat and fuel. Some asbestos stove linings, or stove-top linings, were combined with other fireproof materials.If you care to know exactly what a stove lining is composed of, and whether any of that material is asbestos, write Michael Fleck in care of Environzone Inc., 7105 Virginia Road, Suite 24-C, Crystal Lake, Ill. 60014, who, for a fee, will take a sample and test the material.

Hot Stove Live 7 p.m. [MLB Network] Get updates on what's going on around the majors with rumored trades of players who won't be coming to the Orioles and talk of free agents who won't be coming to the Orioles, such as Mark Teixeira (left).

Sales of stoves fueled by wood, wood pellets and feed corn are soaring across Maryland as families try to control one aspect of a failing economy within reach: the cost of heating their homes. "People walk to the thermostat because they're cold, and they're so worried about what it's going to cost they don't set it where they want," said Mike Tyson, owner of Poor Boy's Garden & Hearth in Dundalk, which sells wood-pellet stoves. "We're the alternative to BGE and oil." Interest in stoves, hearths and fireplace inserts - driven by variables such as the severity of winter, natural disasters and the whims of OPEC - began spiking in May, typically a month for cleaning and maintenance of heating sources, not sales.