AKA little cancer sticks…
The pompiers have just left chez nous!
The carbon monoxide alarm woke me at 06.00 the pompiers arrived very quickly and dealt with a smouldering beam above the wood burner! Very impressed with the professional, effectiont way they choreographed the whole situation.
They told us how lucky we are that the beam did not ignite, lots of old dry beams here!
Please check all your detectors🙏
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So glad everything was OK @Lily
IIRC - even though the test button seems to work OK, it is recommended that the batteries are changed at least annually to be on the safe side.
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Change the whole unit every 10 years is the usual advice.
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Good thing with wood beams is they char up protecting the middle for a lot longer than you may think. Often seen totally burned out houses where beams and trusses, perlins etc are still there.
Sorry to hear this My previous home was full of wooden beams too and after some pine tar ignited in the fluepipe and I had the pompiers out, I was never the same again regarding fire in the house even though enclosed in cast iron burner. I did not sleep properly for weeks even with the family all at home but eventually accepted it and carried on. The pompiers were very good to me also and managed to hoist their leader up into the small trap with a torch to check the combles which in the old breton longère houses are very tiny as the "A"frame roof is used all up but we had put a ceiling upstairs so it could be insulated and that was what I was worried about smouldering away perhaps for hours and then igniting, you just never know. Anyhow glad you did not suffer too much damage that cannot be repaired. I have overkill now with detectors in this new house but what might start in one part might not be detected until too late by the other alarms. I gave the pompiers some bottles of good whisky next day at the caserne to thank them as they did not charge me for coming out.
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Especially as ionising detectors are not allowed in France so later alarms with optical smoke detectors.
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Thats what I love about regulations both in the UK and elswhere, when actually tested majority of things fail to meet minimum standards but still show a compliance cert. Think fire doors at Grenfell, when tested by BRE most failed inside 15-20 minutes. Money and jobs for the boys (and girls) at least france is doung something anout it hopefully.
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Ours are sealed units, so can’t change the battery. Also say change every 10 years.
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I am so glad you are safe and saved!
Some handy info in an old SF thread
In our previous house we had a Godin wood burner installed by Godin. They took great pains to explain how important it is to have the burner flue pipe located well away from any old house beams, even inside the chimney. The pipe will get far hotter than an open chimney flue and can ignite a wood beam.
You may want to have someone come in to check your installation is all ticketty boo before next winter but I’m glad you have been so lucky.
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There is evidence the beam already has fire damage, maybe from the previous owners?
Beams char, but it seldom goes deeper except in a log burner designed to do exactly that. We had submit beams for fire testing on a building I worked on, after 3 hours the char was less than 1" . enough said
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The burner was fitted by professionals, but we have decided to have the fire position lowered away from the beam!
Then I will be able to try cooking on it next winter 
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The front of the beam has no evidence of damage, but the back side is probably halfway burnt through, the pompiers just grattez away the freshly charred parts.
We were amused to see the only female pompier was the one to go into the chimney breast 
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Was she hot 
I’m sure to some of the males 
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That has not crossed our minds, maybe the facture will come with the report, for the insurances’?
They will, or should, in my experience only charge for the lowest level of necessity; false alarm calls, getting cats out of trees, moving cows out of the middle of the road, non emergency hospital transport, people who didn’t buy their calendar last Christmas, so if there’s any kind of smoke or flame that you didn’t start purposely because you’re a pyromaniac, but rather because of an actual situation like yours that has potential to turn nasty I wouldn’t expect one. That said of course, this country is far more fragmented than the UK for these things as we know, and I’m sure their funding from governments is going down as it rarely seems to go up in life, so perhaps my experience isn’t accurate/ up to date.
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We rarely drink alcohol so our first thought was chocolates, but maybe some whiskey might also be received well, thanks for the idea 
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