We have a basement with a open face fireplace. It has a vent pipe out the top, takes a 90 out the wall of the basement about 18 inches from the ceiling and almost 2 feet off ground outside. The previous owners had this set up.

I lit a fire the other day and a great deal of smoke back drafted into the basement.

How do I stop this?

Someone suggested a fan in the pipe to make it suck the smoke up better.

Please help.

Quick sketch of the set up.

www.fleshandcolor.com/fireplace099.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1525552}}