Fireplace Safety – How to Protect Your Home

Cold weather is a cozy occasion to light the fireplace in your living room. However, carelessly throwing together a fire without making sure your fireplace and home are ready can be hazardous. You risk subjecting your property to smoke damage, burning furniture and personal items and damaging the structure of your home. If the fire grows, you may endanger your family members and force them to climb down the fire escape ladder in a panic – or worse.   

Review these fireplace safety tips to prevent disaster and ensure that your living room experience is pleasant and warm.

Inside the Fireplace - Use the flu properly. Open the flu before having a fire and close the flu after. Glance up the chimney to make sure it is not blocked. If smoke starts to fill your home rather than flowing up the chimney, there may be something obstructing the chimney. When you build the fire, avoid over-filling the space so much that the lit wood may fall out.

Around the Fireplace- If you have glass doors, open these while the fire is lit. If you have a firescreen, close this while the fire is lit. Move flammable items from the vicinity of the fireplace – furniture, books, newspaper, Christmas trees (these become more dangerous when they start drying out) and reserved firewood. Avoid using wet wood which can cause smoke and soot to build up. Your chimney should have a functional cap, preventing animals or debris from entering it.

Preparing Your Home -Make sure smoke detectors are working. These should be on every level of your home, in all sleeping areas and prepped with working batteries. If you have multiple stories, purchase a fire escape ladder to make sure your family doesn’t get trapped in case of emergency. If you have a few stories, you may want to purchase a fire escape ladder for each one.

Remember this: plan ahead to make your home safe. Make sure everyone in the house knows where your fire extinguisher is and it is easily accessible. While having a fire escape ladder and extinguisher prepares you, in an ideal world you won’t have to use them. As an extra precaution, crack a window while your fireplace is lit.

And never, never leave the house while the fireplace is running.