Fireplace Safety Rules

Proper fireplace safety is as important as providing a warm home for your family. You may have been extremely adept in using your fireplace since childhood, but a casual slip on fire safety rules can turn your home into a tinderbox and hurt everything and everybody you hold most dear.

Follow these fireplace safety rules for both wood burning and gas fireplaces:

The Do’s - Visit www.acdf-fireplace.com for more information.

• Make sure your fireplace fire is out before you go to sleep


• Light gas fireplaces as soon as gas is turned on for your fireplaces


• Get your fireplaces chimney inspected annually


• Gas fireplaces should have two controls for the flow of gas for greater safety


• Install a guard around your gas fireplace to protect children from getting burnt by the glass and metal doors surrounding the fire


• Decorations and flammables should be away from the fire of your fireplaces


• Top of your chimney for your fireplaces and roof should be steered clear of debris from overhanging branches


• Flue should be left open as long as the fire is smoldering in your fireplaces


• Damper in your fireplaces should be open before starting a fire for burning wood


• Read instructions before using artificial log for your fire place


• Children should be aware of the dangers of fire from fireplaces


• A chimney cap for your fireplaces prevents animals straying in to block the chimney


• Use a mesh screen for your fireplaces with your wood burning fire to prevent burning from flying sparks


• Use long matches to light fire for your fireplaces to avoid getting scorched


• Always keep your fireplace clean in preparation for the next fire


• You should stay alert for any leaks, smells or flames if your fireplaces burns gas

The Don’ts - Visit www.acdf-fireplace.com for more information.

• Do not burn trash or papers in your fireplace


• Do not use charcoal in your fireplace for, it increases the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning


• Do not use flammable liquids like lighter fluid or gasoline to start or increase a fire in your fireplace


• Do not let a wood burning fire in your fireplace go on without somebody to watch over it


• Do not mix artificial wood with the natural wood for your fireplaces


• Do not add artificial wood logs to the fire in the fireplace already burning with natural wood


• Do not break a synthetic log for a quick fire for your fireplaces


• Do not use more than one log at a time for your fireplaces because they burn incompletely, releasing lethal doses of carbon monoxide


• Do not build roaring fires in fireplaces that may ignite creosote in the chimney


• Do not close your fireplace damper with hot ashes still in the fireplace for, it may heat up again and release toxic carbon monoxide into the house