Heating your house is of top priority especially if you live in a climate where your winters are cold. If your primary source of heat is your wood stove, then choosing a firewood that is efficient and safe will be a top priority for you.

Fir is good firewood because it burns well and produces high heat with only a moderate amount of sparks. Douglas fir is described as one of the easiest splitting firewood choices available. It is straight grained and knot free which make it a really nice firewood to split into kindling size pieces.

Keep reading to learn more about Fir and whether you want to choose it as your firewood.

Common Characteristics of Fir Trees

Fir is a softwood that is found through many parts of the world. They are evergreens which mean they have leaves all year long and stay green. Reaching heights of 33 to 262 feet tall and trunk diameters of 1 to 13 feet round make them huge trees.

They are members of the Pine family but you can tell the difference between a Pine and a Fir by its unique attachment of their needle-like leaves. The needles of a Fir tree attach individually to the branches, while the needles on a Pine tree are attached to the branches in clusters.

Common varieties of Fir trees used for firewood

Douglas fir is by far the most popular species of Fir to use as firewood in the United States.

Most people don’t know that they are not true Firs, but is in a genus of its own. They are commonly found throughout western North America and yield more timber than any other tree in North America.

You might hear people call them Oregon Pine and Columbian Pine. There are two varieties of Douglas Firs. One is the coast Douglas-fir and the other is the Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir.

Douglas firs can live to 500 years old and grow over 200 feet tall.

They are easy to identify by their thin needles that stick out in all directions from the twig like a bottle brush. The tips of the needles are soft, unlike spruce needles. Also their cones, unlike true firs, hang down rather than standing up on the branch.

Working with Fir Firewood

What does Fir smell like?

Douglas fir has a pleasant aroma. It doesn’t have as strong of a scent as Cedar, but is smells much better than some firewoods, like Cottonwood, that are known for smelling like cat pee when burnt wet.

Avoid cooking over Douglas fir because it can give your food a “piney” taste. Most cooking and smoking is done with dense hardwood. When roasting things like marshmallows where it isn’t over the fire for long, it doesn’t matter much what firewood you use.

Is Fir sap messy?

Douglas firs are very sappy and are called a resinous softwood, but they don’t come close to the mess Pine trees make. The sap from Pine trees will stick to your clothes, gloves and chain saw.

How hard is Fir to split?

Douglas fir is described as one of the easiest splitting firewood choices available. It is straight grained and knot free which make it a

really nice firewood to split into kindling size pieces. There are often several branches, which can be a pain to remove and labor intensive prior to processing the wood.

When splitting Douglas fir be careful because it is very splintery. It is recommended that you wear gloves.

Douglas fir, green or seasoned splits much easier than other woods like Cottonwood, which when green, is very wet, stringy and heavy, which makes it hard to move and difficult to split. Cottonwood just seems to absorb a maul or splitting axe rather than splitting apart.

How long does Fir take to season?

A year is plenty of time to season your Douglas fir but it can be ready for winter if you cut, split and stack it in the early spring.

If you cut dead standing trees you can usually burn the wood around 6 months with no trouble.

Freshly cut wood, called green wood, is loaded with sap and water and needs to dry out first before lighting it. It’s hard to light and once you get it going, it won’t burn very efficiently and will smoke a lot.

One sign that your firewood is still green and not seasoned is that the bark will be firmly attached to the log. The firewood tends to darken to a grey or yellow as it dries. Seasoned wood will weigh much less than wet wood.

Buy an inexpensive easy to use moisture meter like this one, to ensure your split wood is ready for the fire.

Does Fir burn clean?

Douglas fir is known for giving a moderate amount of smoke. Just make sure your firewood is seasoned properly before burning it.

It is often used for kindling but being denser than most other softwoods it doesn’t ignite as easily so its not the best choice for kindling compared to other softwoods like Cedar which ignite very quickly.

They produce a decent amount of heat for a lengthy period of time with nice long hot coals in a wood stove and a small amount of sparks.

Heat Output and Efficiency of Fir

There is a fairly wide range of information concerning the amount of heat energy Douglas fir produces. Some estimate as low as 17.4 BTUs, while others go as high as 26.5 BTUs per cord. The extreme difference in these numbers might be due to variables in laboratory variables of how much actual solid wood is in a cord.

For the sake of this article we are going to average the two and use 22.0 BTUs for our formulas.

On average a cord of Douglas fir is equal approximately to the following common heat sources:

• 21,311 cubic feet of natural gas.
• 242 gallons of propane.
• 160 gallons of heating oil.
• 6,477 kilowatt hours of electricity.

BTU stands for British Thermal Unit. One BTU the amount of energy required to heat one pound of liquid water by one degree Fahrenheit.

A cord of firewood is equal to 128 cubic feet of wood. Typically firewood is cut into 16 inch lengths and is tightly stacked in three rows, 4 feet high and 8 feet long, totaling 128 cubic feet.

How does Fir compare to other types of firewood?

You’ll find that Douglas fir doesn’t have the highest BTUs like some of the hardwoods out there like White Oak (25.7 BTUs) and Hickory (27.7 BTUs), but it is comparable to many of them.

Douglas fir is commonly mixed with Lodgepole and Ponderosa or Yellow Pine and the combination makes a great firewood choice.

Fire quality, amount of smoke and creosote.

Douglas fir does great in a wood stove because it is a higher density softwood which means it will usually burn slower and put out more radiant heat over a longer time. Other low density softwoods like Cedar, won’t do well in a wood stove because it smokes and pops a lot. Cedar makes better kindling than firewood.

High density hardwoods like Oak or Hickory will give you the best heat for home heating. You get more BTUs over a long period of time.

One complaint people have is that Douglas fir creates creosote buildup in your chimney. The fact is that all firewood creates some amount of creosote. Best practice is to make sure you are using seasoned firewood and clean your chimney at least once a year.

Dirty chimneys can cause chimney fires, which can damage structures. Indications of a chimney fire have been described as creating a loud cracking and popping noise and a lot of smoke.

Properly maintain your chimney so that it won’t catch on fire. You can sweep your chimney yourself or hire a certified chimney sweep to maintain it for you.

The Pros and Cons of Burning Fir as Firewood

Pros

• Knot free.
• Easy to light.
• Splits nicely into kindling.

Cons

• Many branches.
• Very splintery.

Other Common Uses

Plywood, lumber, railroad ties, flooring, fence posts and even furniture are a common use of Douglas fir.

Douglas fir has been commonly used as a Christmas tree since the 1920s because it is typically less expensive than other species.

There are many different firewood species to choose from. However, not all of the options will be available to you since some trees only grow in certain parts of the country. In my opinion, Fir, especially Douglas fir, make a great firewood for your home because they burn well and split easily.

Tell me what your favorite type of firewood is in the comments below.