I also had a chimney fire many years ago. This was long before I had ever thought about TEOTWAWKI and I knew absolutely nothing. I did end up with firemen and “lookie-loos” roaming my house and yard and included much embarrassment.
The reason I am writing this is that one of the firefighters advised me that I can use a long length of heavy chain and lower it down the stack and do a lot of rattling around. This will not replace regular cleaning, but will knock down the larger pieces of build up. If you have wood that leaves a heavy creosote build-up in relatively short time, this will keep you from having to call the chimney sweep every few months. As you wrote, however, the best solution is to buy the proper tools and learn to do it yourself, which we eventually did. Sincerely, – Erica C.