Fireplace Safety Tips for Southeastern Wisconsin

There is nothing quite like sitting before a roaring fire on a cold winter’s night is there? For most of us a book, a cup of tea and a blazing fire are slices of heaven. However without proper care, use and maintenance of your fireplace, that slice of heaven can quickly turn into a blazing inferno and become a slice of hell.

Did you know that on average there are about 25,000 fires started each year as a result of improper use of a home fireplace? To help insure that you don’t become one of those statistics, we have compiled some quick and easy tips to help you enjoy your fireplace and prevent fire damage to your home. We offer our thanks to American Home Shield as well as to HGTV where we found the following information:

Building the Fire:

• Fireplaces should not be used as furnaces. Use a fireplace for a short-duration fire — no longer than five hours.
• NEVER leave a fire unattended when children are in the house. Adults, even if near, should not allow children to play near or with fire tools and equipment
• Make sure the mantel and area around the hearth is clear of debris, decorations and combustible materials.
  
• Keep the glass open to allow air to be drawn up to cool the chimney, but keep the screen closed to prevent sparks from jumping onto the carpeting.
• Before making a fire, open the glass doors, pull aside the screen curtains, and place the kindling, newspaper and logs inside. Next, open the damper and a window. The window needs to be open only a few inches. You can check to make sure the smoke will go up the chimney properly by lighting a match, quickly blowing it out and watching the smoke to see whether it’s going up and out.
• If your wood-burning fireplace has glass doors, leave them open when burning a fire. This helps ensure that the fire receives enough air and prevents creosote — a gummy substance created during the burning process — from building up in the chimney.
• Use fireplace tools to handle burning logs. Never use your hands.
• Be certain to extinguish the fire before retiring to bed.

Cleaning the fireplace:

• Never use a vacuum to clean up ashes, because live coals may remain in those ashes
  
• Fireplace coals can remain hot enough to start a fire up to three days, so always wait at least that long before removing the ashes. Use a shovel to scoop the ashes into a metal container. Store the container far from combustible materials and surfaces, and wood floors.
• Glass doors may develop tough stains from flames and heat. To clean them, make sure the glass doors are cool, and then scrape off any thick gunk deposits with a razor blade. Add a squirt of liquid dishwashing detergent to a bucket of warm water, or add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water. Spray or sponge the cleaner on, and then wipe it away with newspaper (which is lint-free). Another option is to buy glass cleaner at a fireplace store.
• Shine brass fireplace utensils with Worcestershire sauce and a toothbrush.
• Clean the firebox (the area where the logs burn) at least once a week during the months you use it, when ash builds up. Leave about an inch of ash because it acts as insulation, allowing the coals to heat faster and retain the heat easier. Keep the firebox completely clean during the months when the fireplace is not in use.
• To clean an exterior slate hearth, wash, dry and coat it with lemon oil every six weeks to make it shine. For cleaning exterior brick hearths, buy a brick cleaner at a fireplace shop
• Have a certified chimney sweep inspect and clean the chimney when necessary. Have him show you how to check it yourself, too. The chimney should be checked at least once a year or after about 80 fires.

For more information on fireplace safety visit: www.ahs.com or www.hgtv.com

From beginning to end, we can handle 100% of the restoration process so you don’t have to. This can include content pack-outs, cleaning & storage of personal property, structural drying & mitigation, mold remediation, lead & asbestos abatement, and full re-construction services. We are licensed, bonded, and fully insured. We abide by all state and federal laws, and are certified as a “Lead Safe Renovator” with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and accredited with the IICRC.

For more information on Emergency Fire & Water Restoration, or the services we provide, give us a call at 414-810-3522, or visit our website at www.emergencyrest.com