An ornate brick chimney pokes up above the roof of a small rectangular building sandwiched between warehouses.This chimney isn't an architect's attempt at adding some personality to the otherwise functionally-bland boxes that make up this Central Indiana city's sprawling industrial district.This chimney is the real deal, and it's also a greeting sign letting visitors know they've arrived at the Chimney Safety Institute of America and the headquarters of The National Chimney Sweep Guild.Yes, in the era of central heat and air, there's still a demand for fireplaces and the professionals who keep chimneys clean and safe - particularly when temperatures dip. Plainfield is the industry's heart, and a quirky point of pride among local business leaders. After all, it's because of the institute that an episode of "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel came to town."It's different," said Brad DuBois, executive director of the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce. "It adds to Plainfield.
It makes us special, I guess."Tom Spalding, a spokesman for the institute, said there are about 5,000 chimney sweep companies in the U.S. and some 1,450 CSIA certified chimney and flu-cleaners. They call themselves "sweeps."Ashley Eldridge, the institute's director of education, said that while some families still rely on wood stoves and fireplaces as their primary means of heating their homes each winter, more homeowners install them for aesthetic purposes."We call them entertainment devices," Eldridge said.After all, Eldridge said, it's still hard to beat the soothing warmth from a flickering fire on a cold evening.Of course, all of this burning means that flue and chimney fires remain a point of concern in the U.S. Over time, unburned wood particles, soot and carcinogenic creosote can form inside a chimeny.