Hearth Smart: An Overview of Fireplace Safety

Winter is the time of year when many of us seek a respite from the chill by curling up in front of a crackling fire, maybe even with a hot toddy and a good book. Unfortunately, some choose to play fast and loose with fireplace safety. For them, what begins as an evening hiatus from winter cold can culminate in a frantic race to escape a blistering, respite-ruining inferno.

Maintaining your fireplace, burning the right kind of wood, and following common sense safety practices are all vital to averting a fireplace apocalypse. Creosote, a chemical substance that forms when wood burns, is the primary nemesis to an efficiently operating chimney. Creosote, the cause of much fireplace maintenance, builds up on the inside of the chimney and provides fuel for chimney fires. Because of this danger, the National Fire Protection Association advises having a professional inspect and clean your chimney annually.

Should you choose to clean your own chimney, the National Chimney Sweep Guild recommends, "using a good stiff chimney brush connected to fiberglass rods or a rope lowered from the top." An old bed sheet taped across the fireplace opening will prevent debris from soiling your living quarters while you're performing the maintenance.

When it comes wood selection, the National Safety Council (NSC) advises using wood that has been aged or seasoned for at least six months. The drier the wood, the more evenly the fire will burn. Using insufficiently dry wood will increase soot and creosote build-up in the chimney.

While any type of well-seasoned wood is suitable for burning, different woods have different burning characteristics. Pine, birch and other soft woods burn quickly and make excellent kindling. Denser woods, such as oak, cherry and hickory, burn slowly for longer lasting fires.

Fireplace users should follow a few simple safety guidelines. For instance, because ashes can easily rekindle, they should be handled with extreme caution. Let them cool completely and then collect them in a metal bucket. Store metal ash buckets away from any potentially combustible surface or materials.

Other fireplace safety guidelines to remember are:

• Always use a fire screen that completely covers the fireplace opening. This prevents sparks from flying out into the room, and protect children and adults from inadvertent ignition.
• Artificial logs should not be treated the same as real logs. They are usually made of sawdust and wax and have special burning properties. Read the instructions carefully. Adding an artificial log to a wood fire could result in a flare-up.
• Don't overload the fireplace. Large fires can lead to over-heating of wall and roof materials, particularly if the fireplace is made of metal.
• Never use gasoline, lighter fluid or other flammable liquids to light or re-light a fire; the vapors can explode.
• Because of the explosion hazard, homemade rolled newspaper logs should never be soaked in flammable fluids of any kind.
• Never burn coal, charcoal, or any type of polystyrene in a fireplace. The combustion of these products creates a significant amount of deadly carbon monoxide (CO).
• To avoid the accumulation of CO always open the damper before lighting the fire and keep it open until the ashes are cool.

Finally, remember that smoke detectors, CO detectors and tri-class fire extinguishers are standard safety tools for any household, let alone a home with a fireplace.

For more information on fire safety and fire prevention, visit the National Fire Protection Association Web site at: http://www.nfpa.org.