If your home gets some serious decorative treatment during the holidays, go ahead and enjoy the festive season – but be mindful of how your fireplace might interact with all the activity around it.
Doodlebuggers Fireplace, Grill & Outdoor Store of Destin, FL, and Pensacola, FL, would like to share some useful tips for fireplace safety during the holiday season.
No matter what kind of fireplace you have, a handsome fireplace screen is a great component to help keep heat, flames and sparks away from everything beyond the fireplace. Screens come in a variety of sizes and styles, so it’ll be easy to bring home something that accents your home’s décor.
A quality fireplace screen also serves as a people-barrier, particularly for younger children and pets, who sometimes get a little rambunctious with the excitement of the holidays.
Along with adding a fireplace screen, it’s also a good idea to set an invisible barrier of three to five feet around your fireplace. The barrier means no people or things can go into the protected space without a reason (such as to tend the fire).
Things you want to keep away from the fire include:
Regardless of the visible or invisible barriers you put up this holiday season, young children need to be taught the dangers of a fireplace and to always stay away from it. They need to understand that, as alluring as a roaring fireplace is, it’s not a toy; rather, it’s something that only adults should make contact with.
Fireplace mantels are wonderful shelves for all sorts of seasonal decorations. Just make sure none of the items you place on the mantel could easily fall off it and into or near the fire.
Be especially careful with Christmas cards, stockings and anything else made of paper, cloth or other light materials that could fall from the mantel.
These tips are useful during the holidays and at all other times when your fireplace is operating.
If it’s been more than a year since your chimney was last cleaned and inspected, give us a call before the holidays.
Doodlebuggers specializes in chimney sweeping, inspections and all types of chimney repair work.
Reach a chimney and fireplace expert today at 850-477-1151 in Pensacola, FL, or at 850-243-0154
in the Destin, FL, area. You can also get in touch with our handy contact form.