Santa's Friend Chimney Service

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How To Build A Safe Fire This Winter

The scene is beautiful: Family and friends gathered in front of a beautiful fire, toasting to old memories, and creating new ones. However, things can turn ugly quickly. Especially, if you don’t know how to safely build and maintain a fire. There are several ways to make sure that your beautiful fireplace scene stays just that way.

How To Build A Safe Fire This Winter - Jackson MS - Santas Friend Chimney ServiceMaintain Your Fireplace

The first thing to do to make sure that you have a safe, stable fire is to be proactive! Have your chimney and fireplace inspected and cleaned on an annual basis. When you’re looking for a chimney sweep service, it is important to hire someone who is Chimney Safety Institute of America (CSIA) certified. This ensures that your chimney inspection is held to the highest standard of quality in the industry. When you hire the qualified technicians at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service, you’ll be getting just that. The staff at Santa’s Friend has over 26 years of experience. In addition, they use the latest techniques and technology, ensuring that things are fixed promptly and cleaned thoroughly.

How to Light Your Fire

There’s more to lighting a safe fire than just throwing some wood down and lighting a match. According to the Martha Stewart website, start by opening your dampers all the way. Crumpled newspaper makes a great fire starter. So, crumple some up and put it under the grate, then top this with strips of newspaper. Add eight or so pieces of kindling on top. Afterwards, add a few thin, split logs to top the kindling off. If you stack this too tightly, air won’t be able to circulate. If this happens, you will have trouble starting the fire. It’s best to keep these layers loose. Light the tinder, then, when the fire is burning steadily, add a couple of small logs and one large log. If you add too much too soon, you risk smothering your fire. Worse yet, you might get a larger blaze that is difficult to control.

After It’s Lit

After you have the fire burning, there are other things to consider to make sure that things stay safe. Make sure that there is nothing flammable near the fireplace, including books, toys, furniture, or curtains – any of these can easily catch a spark that cause a fire that can put your home and loved ones in danger.

Healthychildren.org tells us to be sure that the fire is completely out before going to bed or going out for the evening. Absolutely never leave little children alone in a room with a burning fire. Also, don’t leave matches or fire starters out where children can get a hold of them.

It is also very important to make sure that your smoke detector batteries are charged. According to the U.S. Fire Administration, you should have a smoke detector installed on each floor of the house. This includes the basement, as well as in every bedroom, and outside every sleeping area. Check your smoke detector batteries once a month, and change the batteries at least twice a year.

Call Santa’s Friend Chimney Service

If you have questions or concerns on fireplace safety, call Santa’s Friend Chimney Service at 601-854-7563. Their qualified professionals have the answers to help keep your home safe and worry-free.

By Jim Robinson on December 15th, 2016 | Tagged with: Tags: , , | Leave a Comment

Reducing Fire Hazards

When you own a home with a fireplace, you must take on a few extra responsibilities, such as cleaning up ashes, storing firewood, and, most importantly, protecting yourself, your family, and your home from fire hazards that are involved with a fireplace. While a roaring fire can be beautiful and relaxing, fire is a potentially dangerous element. If you do not take certain precautions, you could find yourself experiencing an accidental fire, carbon monoxide poisoning, and other hazardous situations. Our staff at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service places great value on fire safety, and we feel strongly about promoting fire safety tips to our customers. We would like to share with you some ways to reduce fire hazards so that you can safely enjoy cozy and warm fires this year.

Be careful about what you burn in your fireplace.

Santa’s Friend Chimney Service recommends that you only burn seasoned firewood in your fireplace. This type of wood has been allowed to dry for at least six months after it has been cut. When you use seasoned firewood, you will have longer-lasting and cleaner-burning fires that produce less smoke. You should never burn treated or painted wood, paper, or anything else in your fireplace, according to HouseLogic.

Keep the area surrounding your fireplace clear from combustibles.

To prevent an accidental fire being ignited from hot sparks and embers jumping from your fireplace, keep flammable items like furniture and curtains at least six feet away from the hearth.

Place a metal fireplace screen in front of the hearth.

Fire screen in fireplace - Jackson MS - Santa's Friend Chimney Service

In order to keep kids and pets from getting too close to the fireplace, you should install a mesh metal screen in front of your fireplace. Be sure the screen is secure so that it cannot be easily knocked over.

Have your chimney professionally cleaned and inspected once a year.

This professional chimney maintenance service guarantees your chimney is free from damage and other problems that could make it unsafe to use. It will also greatly reduce your risk of experiencing a chimney fire as all of the accumulated creosote deposits will be removed from the interior of your chimney.

Install smoke and carbon monoxide alarm detectors throughout your home.

These lifesaving alarms should be installed in the same room as your fireplace, outside each bedroom, and on every floor in your home. Make a habit of changing the batteries in these alarms when you change your clocks in the spring and fall for Daylight Savings Time.

Have a question about reducing fire hazards? Contact us at Santa’s Friend Chimney Service to learn more about fireplace safety recommendations for your home.

By Jim Robinson on February 10th, 2016 | Tagged with: Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment

Fireplace Safety Tips for the Holidays

Your fireplace is your focal point for entertaining and decorating during the holidays, but it is important to keep in mind a few safety suggestions and tips during this busy time. The holidays are about celebrations, loved ones, and joy, and the last thing you would want to experience during this season is a house fire. As reported by HouseLogic, residental fires increase by more than double during the holidays. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) cited over twice the amount of open-flame fires on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The amount of damage from these holiday fires are even more alarming as the number of deaths per 1,000 house fires increases by 70 percent, and the amount of property loss is 34 percent higher than from fires on any other day of the year. As you can tell from our name, Santa’s Friend Chimney Service loves the holidays, and we want everyone to be as safe as possible and enjoy spending time with friends and family by the fireplace. Remembering the following safety tips will help you reduce the risk of a devastating residential fire this holiday season.

ONLY BURN FIREWOOD IN YOUR FIREPLACE OR STOVE

Fireplace Safety Tips for the Holidays - Jackson MS - Santa's FriendAfter unwrapping gifts, some people have been known to throw the scraps of wrapping paper into the fireplace or stove to burn. Unfortunately, these people found out that burning holiday paper in this manner is not very safe. The dyes used on wrapping paper can cause the fire to spark and produce flash fires. These types of fires can quickly spread into your home, especially if you have combustible items like decorations around your hearth for the holidays. Additionally, you should never burn your Christmas tree in the fireplace or stove. This can also become hazardous very quickly. The safest thing to burn in your fireplace and stove is seasoned firewood and nothing else.

KEEP YOUR HEARTH AREA CLEAR OF DECORATIONS AND GIFTS

Even if you are only burning seasoned wood, hot sparks and embers can jump from the fireplace and easily ignite a residential fire if any combustible items are nearby. Santa’s Friend Chimney Service understands how important the hearth area can be when it comes to holiday decorations, but you should never hang decorations made from combustible or flammable materials around the fireplace. You should also take care to keep your Christmas tree away from the fireplace or stove. Even though the image of the tree right beside the fireplace is a very cozy holiday picture, the majority of holiday fires involve Christmas trees. No matter if your tree is real or artificial, it can be very dangerous to place it too close to your fireplace or stove.

WATCH OUT FOR KIDS AND PETS

If you are entertaining friends and family with small children during the holidays, you want to ensure that there is always adult supervision in the room with the fireplace or stove. Never leave children alone in the same room as a burning fire. This also goes for pets. Even if you have fireplace doors and a protective screen, you can never be too careful when it comes to fire safety and children and animals. Accidents can happen quickly, so even when you are in the room with kids and animals, keep an eye on them to be sure they are not playing too close to the fire.

Santa’s Friend Chimney Service wishes you all a safe and happy holiday season. Contact us at 800-390-9939, if you have any chimney or fireplace needs to be able to safely enjoy your fireplace over the holidays.

By Jim Robinson on December 9th, 2015 | Tagged with: Tags: , , , , , | Leave a Comment