How small would a person have to be to enter a house through the chimney?

Factual Questions
1

Re this news storyabout a crazy ex-GF that tried to do just that I’ve seen a few of these “burglar stuck in chimney” stories over the years with people getting stuck while doing this, sometimes fatally.

Assuming we’re not taking giant castle fireplace chimneys but average residential chimneys, I’ve looked up a flue or two in my time and the chimney diameter did not seem that large. How tiny would you have to be to actually accomplish this? Beyond this how would you get past a closed damper? The whole idea seems impossible.

2

you might have a flue damper (smoke valve in the chimney) which pivots on a rod pasting through the middle of the opening. only an 8" thick person would fit.

3

I thought that was going to be the story of the ex-GF, who was an attorney, so probably not rock stupid, who got stuck in the chimney, and they didn’t find out until her corpse started dripping :eek:
It was a couple of years ago- I don’t want to look for it.

4

Are there any standard size for chimneys? It seems to me it varies a lot.

5

Whats more, quite often that big stack of bricks on the roof is concealing one or more fairly small, and ugly, pipes.

Chimney sweeps used to — well, basically, buy — very small (by current standards) children to climb up into the flues. Even they occasionally got stuck.

6

To enter a home through a chimney, you must be the size of an elf. If the elf is elderly and jolly, that’s a plus.

7

Basically chimneys people could go down were chimneys for fireplaces and these chimneys were probably pre-World War II.

8

2010, and she was a doctor - also in California: As you say over there - Go figure.

9

This is why doctors and lawyers usually don’t make house calls.