Help! Boiler not firing up during blizzard!

moskos

A blizzard is just about here and my steam boiler doesn't want to turn on .Needless to say I can't get a service call in current conditions. So if anybody can reply rather quickly, it would be greatly appreciated!

The boiler does *sometimes* fire up. For instance, it was working fine this morning. And then just stopped. I turned the main power off and on a few times and I *did* get it to fire up again. Just now it went though two on-off pressure cycles. But now it won't fire up again. I suspect the problem may be in the gas vent damper or some auto shut off. Any ideas?

This is a burnham steam boiler (for a 1-pipe steam system). Model #SINSLNI-LE2 IN5I. Water level is fine, as is power (and, I assume, gas).

When it doesn't fire up, the gas vent damper makes a sound (opening, I assume), then there's a more wooshing sound, for about a second. All that is normal. But just when the pilot spark would normally go on and fire it up, the whole thing goes into shut down mode. (And the gas vent damper does its closing thing -- or at least makes a sound like it.)

I suspect an auto-shut off is kicking in (the water level and power are fine). Perhaps a CO shut off? Are there any other auto shut offs I should know about?

If I can't get it to turn on, the first thing I'm thinking of doing is to remove the exhaust vent on the wall side to see if any dead birds are clogging the chimney. Does that make sense?

Nothing like a blizzard with no heat...