Fireplaces are Great but Should Never Put Your Family at Risk

A crackling fire in the fireplace is often just the remedy to add a little extra warmth to an area of your home. Most of us love sitting by a warm fireplace. The smell, the feeling, the comfort, sipping hot cocoa. If you use a fireplace to supplement your heat when the weather turns cold, make sure it has been recently cleaned from chimney to hearth to prevent the risk of a fire. Failure to clean the creosote that builds up inside the chimney is a leading cause of home fires. Make sure your fireplace chimney is cleaned once a year by a professional chimney sweep and that you use a glass or metal mesh screen in front of the fireplace opening to prevent hot cinders from escaping into the room. More fire prevention tips are available at usfa.fema.gov.