Reported by: Brendan KeefePhotographed by: Sean DunsterWeb produced by: Laura HornsbyComment on this story: Email Brendan at Brendan.Keefe@wcpo.com.It's the new second-hand smoke: your fireplace is now being targeted by those who say wood fires not only pollute, they kill.Don't believe it?
We found one neighborhood in Loveland that has become the front line in this new environmental battle.
It's a burning issue.
Could your fireplace make your neighbors sick? Or is this all a smoke-screen for a fringe environmental movement?
The debate has pitted neighbor against neighbor on this otherwise quiet street in loveland.
Rob Streicher and his wife Vonda enjoy their wood burning fireplace. Their next-door neighbors, Jack and Kate Earley, say the smoke from that fire has ruined their lives.
"No wood smoke, we start healing up," explained Jack Earley of Loveland. "Wood smoke, we start having problems."
"We usually don't smell it first," added Kate Earley. "We usually feel the itching, or feel the ache in the tail bone, and then we say, 'is there smoke around?"
Kate complains of pain and fatigue. Jack has mysterious quarter-sized rashes on his legs and arms, all conditions they attribute to wood smoke.
"I understand he says he has a medical condition, but I don't think it's based on wood smoke," said Rob Streicher. "Fire has been heating homes, heating people, for thousands of years. And know all of a sudden it's going to kill us? I don't think so."
A quick internet search of the words "wood smoke" returns more than 250,000 hits, many posted by environmental activists.
"The first site that will come up says 'wood smoke kills,' and you find out that wood smoke attacks the the immune system -- the auto-immune system," said Jack Earley. "My God, it's full of 70 chemicals."
The earleys are so concerned, they've become self-described "bubble people, sealing themselves into their own home with giant sheets of plastic.
Their front door is sealed, not to keep out intruders, but what they describe as an invisible killer. The shrink wrap covers every window and their own fireplace is wrapped in a plastic cocoon - mantle, photos and all.
"We have new windows coming, new doors," Jack Earley said. "This has cost us a fortune."
Nine air air purifiers ring the house, including three in the garage as a front line against any smoke that wafts under the garage door.
Rob Streicher questions their actions. "How could it possibly be going up, dissipating through the atmosphere, and them come down into his garage?" He said.
"It's not going to come roaring under somebody's garage door or anything like that," Vonda Streicher added. "It's ludicrous."
It began last fall when, like many Tri-State families, the Streichers stocked their backyard fire pit.
Everything was warm and cozy until the neighbors called the fire department.
"When you have the chief of the fire department show up with two Symmes Township police officers, it's a little intimidating, for us burning a fire pit in our backyard," Rob Streicher said.
The Streichers got a written warning ordering them to stop burning outside or face fines under an Ohio law that bans open burning if someone complains.
"The fire department fortunately stopped that outside burning," Jack Earley said. "They were great. But they can't do anything about a fireplace in a house."
So the Earleys called Hamilton County Environmental Services, which issued another written warning to the Streichers: "this agency received citizens' complaints regarding excessive smoke and odors," the letter said. It goes on to warn of "enforcement" and "civil penalties."
"When you get a letter from the Hamilton County Environmental Services, that was a little bit of a shock too," Rob Streicher said. "What have we done?"
But the Streichers continue to burn wood in their fireplace, the one luxury they say they are simply unwilling to surrender.
"This is one of the reasons we bought this house, is because of the fireplace," Vonda Streicher said.
And the Earleys batten down the plastic for another night in the bubble. "Right now, you might as well get accustomed to having a more environmentally-friendly [fireplace] because somebody's probably going to start getting the idea of regulating it anyway," Kate Earley said. "The people who burn smoke are all good people, nice people, friendly people. They'll come to your funeral," Jack Earley added.
The one thing both neighbors agree on is that this feud will soon spread from their block in Loveland to Columbus or Washington, where activists will push for bans on wood-burning.
The unanswered question: Is there a real health concern, or are they just blowing smoke?
