Safety Tip: Open Fireplace Doors When Burning A Fire

Brick Anew October 23, 2015

With fireplace season in full swing, many of us are examining the condition of our fireplaces and making lists of what we should be doing to prepare for the long fireplace season ahead. You might need accessories, update the look of your fireplace, or even order a beautiful new set of fireplace doors. Glass fireplace doors can be a beautiful addition to your fireplace offering an added layer of protection and a measure of safety to your home.

Whether you have a fireplace that’s masonry or a pre-fab brand like Superior or Heatilator, you can find doors in a variety of styles that will work for you. After you purchase fireplace doors and you’ve successfully installed them according to the manufacturer’s instructions, it’s time to get ready for your first big fire.

Why You Should Keep Your Glass Fireplace Doors Open While the Fire is Burning

For safety reasons, when burning a fire in your fireplace, always keep the glass doors open, unlike the “staged” pictures that show fireplace doors closed with a burning fire behind the closed doors. It’s important to make sure your glass fireplace doors are open when you are burning a fire to help maximize airflow, which helps promote combustion, which according to the U.S. Fire Administration minimizes the buildup of creosote in your chimney. To protect yourself further from a burn, or the ignition of a fire inside your home, it’s also recommended you use a metal mesh screen to keep hot, smoldering embers inside the fireplace box where they belong if you burn real wood. Whether you burn real wood or gas logs, it’s important to keep the doors open when the fire is burning so the glass won’t get too hot and possibly break.

Keep the fireplace doors open!

Increase Combustion with Improved Airflow

When you leave your glass fireplace doors open, it increases airflow, which makes the fire burn hotter when you burn real wood. In contrast, when you have poor airflow you end up with poor combustion, and smokier, dirtier fires in your home. With increased airflow and better combustion, you’ll not only create a more pleasant environment and enjoy the fire you’ve built in your fireplace more, you’ll also reduce accumulation of creosote. There’s no way around it, burning wood generates creosote, which then adheres to the inside of the chimney and its connectors. Creosote is dangerous because it is combustible, which is why you need to keep your fireplace clean, and get regular, annual inspections.

Once the Fire Goes Out, Close the Glass Fireplace Doors

Though airflow and combustion are very important while a fire is burning, once the fire has burned itself out, you can safely close your glass fireplace doors. Your fireplace doors are an important tool for you to use to help prevent pets and children from getting injured by hot embers and ashes, and to help keep the occasional drafts that come through your chimney to a minimum once your fire is out.