Last week as I was backing out of my driveway, I was alerted to a fire on my neighbor’s roof. I saw flames coming from the shake roof near the chimney. I grabbed my water hose and nozzle and started spraying water on the fire while my wife alerted the fire department. There were a couple of other people alerting my neighbor that his roof was on fire. Fire department showed up and doused the fire after cutting several holes in his roof and ceiling.
I asked my neighbor what he thought happened and he said he and his wife had just started a fire in their fireplace. I mentioned to him that he did not have a spark arrester and he agreed, that it was probably an ember than landed on the wood shake roof. In my area, there is an architectural committee that is very strict about roof replacement materials. You have very few choices other than using wood shake, if you want a wood shake appearance.
Suffice it to say, if you have a wood shake roof and a fireplace, make sure you have a spark arrester installed to your chimney top.