No problem! I definitely don't know all this because I caused a chimney fire in my own chimney. Definitely not. 🤐

It does. You might notice that the inside of a fireplace has practically zero soot, just ash... and the inside of the chimney where it is not actively on fire (hopefully) gets caked with soot. Eventually the soot (creosote really) will get caked up enough to slow the draw through the chimney, causing heat buildup, and potentially a chimney fire. A chimney fire will indeed burn off the soot, but also likely damaging the chimney and possibly burning the house down.