Fireplace Accessories

We are proud to offer you a wide selection of Firesafe approved and quality fireplace accessories.
To encourage home fire safety, the owner, a volunteer firefighter, will include a free smoke alarm with every order over $100.

Tax Credit

The 2009 Economic Stimulus legislation signed into law by President Obama includes a 30% tax credit (up to $1,500) for the purchase in 2009 and 2010 of a 75%-efficient wood or pellet burning appliance.

Featured Product
Digital carbon monoxide detector Price: $102.95 Features Digital carbon monoxide detector Battery power 3 AAA included Manufacturer: Nighthawk

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Dress-up Your Home with Fireplace Accessories

The fireplace is a beautifully visible part of the home and plays an important role in our lives reflecting the heart and soul of its owners, and can turn a plain room into an inviting retreat. Adding fireplace accessories creates a fireplace that integrates form and function and can completely alter the face of a fireplace.

Not only do fireplace accessories contribute to a home's design, they also help create a safe and more efficient fireplace. A basic fireplace can be dressed up by simply adding a fireplace spark screen in a distinctive architectural style. Include a complementary tool set and firewood holder, and the fireplace gains elegance as well as practicality.

Smoke Alarms

All U.S. homes should have working smoke alarms.

Fire injuries and deaths can be prevented. A few easy steps can save your life!

• Install a smoke alarm on every floor of your home, even the basement.
• Install a smoke alarm outside every sleeping area. Ideally, install smoke alarms in every sleeping area, too.
• Test smoke alarms monthly.
• Change the batteries at least once a year-maybe at Daylight Savings Time or on your birthday.
• Teach children what your smoke alarm sounds like and what to do if they hear it-get out and crawl low under smoke.
• Never disable a smoke alarm (like for cooking smoke). Consider alarms with hush buttons.
• Never remove a smoke alarm battery for some other use, like a radio or video game.
• Keep smoke alarms clean. Vacuum them often.
• Replace smoke alarms after 10 years.
• Choose smoke alarms that come with 10-year batteries.

Important

The United States Fire Administration recommends the installation of both ionization and photoelectric or dual sensor smoke alarms. For extra safety, install smoke alarms both inside and outside sleeping areas.

Smoke Alarm Facts

• Having a working smoke alarm cuts the risk of dying in a home fire in half.
• Nine out of 10 homes have smoke alarms, but millions of those alarms do not work.
• Missing or dead batteries are the main causes of non-working smoke alarms.
• More than 3 out of 5 home fire deaths occur in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.

Courtesy of: www.fireSafety.gov

Using Your Wood Stove Safely

You should never smell smoke in your home; smoke is unhealthy to breathe. The odor of smoke in your home indicates that your wood stove is not operating efficiently or safely. An EPA certified wood stove burns wood efficiently, releasing 60 to 80% less smoke up the chimney

Safety Begins at Installation

Using a wood stove safely starts with proper installation. EPA recommends using a certified professional installer as the best way to ensure correct, safe installation. A properly installed wood stove always has a vent to the exterior. Because an EPA certified wood stove burns more efficiently than older non-certified models, much less creosote builds up in the chimney. Creosote is a combustible residue formed by wood gases that are not completely burned. Too much creosote can lead to a chimney fire. In 1998, there were 18,300 residential fires in the United States originating in chimneys, fireplaces, and solid fuel appliances, according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. These fires resulted in 160 personal injuries, 40 deaths, and $158 million in property damage.

Safety Includes Yearly Maintenance

EPA and fire officials recommend having your wood stove, chimney, and vents professionally inspected and cleaned each year to keep them in safe working order. The Chimney Safety Institute of America provides a list of certified chimney sweeps, searchable by state.

Safe Wood Burning Practices

Once your EPA certified wood stove is properly installed, follow these guidelines for safe operation:

• Keep all flammable household items, drapes, furniture, newspapers, and books far away from your wood stove.
• Start fires only with clean newspaper and dry kindling. Never start a fire with gasoline, kerosene, charcoal starter, or a propane torch.
• Do not burn wet or green (unseasoned) logs.
• Do not use logs made from wax and sawdust in your wood stove or fireplace insert, they are made for open hearth fireplaces. If you use manufactured logs, choose those made from 100 percent compressed sawdust.
• Build small, hot fires. A smoldering fire is not a safe or efficient fire.
• Keep the doors of your wood stove closed unless loading or stoking the live fire.
• Regularly remove ashes from your wood stove into a metal container with a cover. Store the container of ashes outdoors on a cement or brick slab (not on a wood deck or near wood).
• Keep a fire extinguisher handy.

Courtesy of: www.epa.gov

Fireplace Safety And Maintenance

Fireplaces regularly build up creosote in their chimneys.

• Have your chimney inspected annually by a professional chimney sweep and inspected for obstructions and cracks to prevent deadly chimney and roof fires.
• Install both a smoke and carbon monoxide detector. (Make sure the batteries work)
• Check to make sure the damper is open before starting any fire.
• Keep a fire extinguisher on hand.
• Never burn trash, paper or green wood in your fireplace. These materials cause heavy creosote buildup and are difficult to control.
• Use a fireplace grate.
• Always close the fireplace spark screen when in use.
• Use fireplace tools to tend the fire.
• Don't wear loose-fitting clothes near any open flame.
• Make sure the fire is completely out before leaving the house or going to bed.
• Never use gasoline or any liquid accelerant to help start a fire.
• Keep small children and pets away from the fireplace.
• Never burn a Christmas tree in the fireplace.
• When cleaning the fireplace, store ashes in a ash holder with a tightly fitting lid and place the container away from the house.
• Never burn a Christmas tree in the fireplace.
• Remember to practice a home escape plan frequently with your family.

Conventional masonry and factory-built fireplaces are not efficient at producing heat. These fireplaces are also the source of smoke, indoors and out. To reduce the health risks of smoke for you, your family, and your neighbors, EPA recommends installing an EPA certified fireplace insert, a vented gas stove, or a pellet stove.

Carbon Monoxide (CO)

Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless and toxic gas. Because it is impossible to see, taste or smell the toxic fumes, CO can kill you before you are aware it is in your home. At lower levels of exposure, CO causes mild effects that are often mistaken for the flu. These symptoms include headaches, dizziness, disorientation, nausea and fatigue. The effects of CO exposure can vary greatly from person to person depending on age, overall health and the concentration and length of exposure.

Definition

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, practically odorless, and tasteless gas or liquid. It results from incomplete oxidation of carbon in combustion. Burns with a violet flame. Slightly soluble in water; soluble in alcohol and benzene. Specific gravity 0.96716; boiling point -190oC; solidification point -207oC; specific volume 13.8 cu. ft./lb. (70oF). Auto ignition temperature (liquid) 1128oF. Classed as an inorganic compound. Source: "The Condensed Chemical Dictionary," 9th ed., revised by Gessner G. Hawley, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., NY, 1977.

Sources of Carbon Monoxide

Unvented kerosene and gas space heaters; leaking chimneys and furnaces; back-drafting from furnaces, gas water heaters, wood stoves, and fireplaces; gas stoves; generators and other gasoline powered equipment; automobile exhaust from attached garages; and tobacco smoke. Incomplete oxidation during combustion in gas ranges and unvented gas or kerosene heaters may cause high concentrations of CO in indoor air. Worn or poorly adjusted and maintained combustion devices (e.g., boilers, furnaces) can be significant sources, or if the flue is improperly sized, blocked, disconnected, or is leaking. Auto, truck, or bus exhaust from attached garages, nearby roads, or parking areas can also be a source.

Health Effects Associated with Carbon Monoxide

At low concentrations, fatigue in healthy people and chest pain in people with heart disease. At higher concentrations, impaired vision and coordination; headaches; dizziness; confusion; nausea. Can cause flu-like symptoms that clear up after leaving home. Fatal at very high concentrations. Acute effects are due to the formation of carboxyhemoglobin in the blood, which inhibits oxygen intake. At moderate concentrations, angina, impaired vision, and reduced brain function may result. At higher concentrations, CO exposure can be fatal.

Levels in Homes

Average levels in homes without gas stoves vary from 0.5 to 5 parts per million (ppm). Levels near properly adjusted gas stoves are often 5 to 15 ppm and those near poorly adjusted stoves may be 30 ppm or higher.

Steps to Reduce Exposure to Carbon Monoxide

It is most important to be sure combustion equipment is maintained and properly adjusted. Vehicular use should be carefully managed adjacent to buildings and in vocational programs. Additional ventilation can be used as a temporary measure when high levels of CO are expected for short periods of time.

• Keep gas appliances properly adjusted.
• Consider purchasing a vented space heater when replacing an unvented one.
• Use proper fuel in kerosene space heaters.
• Install and use an exhaust fan vented to outdoors over gas stoves.
• Open flues when fireplaces are in use.
• Choose properly sized wood stoves that are certified to meet EPA emission standards. Make certain that doors on all wood stoves fit tightly.
• Have a trained professional inspect, clean, and tune-up central heating system (furnaces, flues, and chimneys) annually. Repair any leaks promptly.
• Do not idle the car inside garage.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends that every home should have a carbon monoxide (CO) alarm. CPSC also urges consumers to have a professional inspection of all fuel- burning appliances -- including furnaces, stoves, fireplaces, clothes dryers, water heaters, and space heaters -- to detect deadly carbon monoxide leaks.

Courtesy of: www.epa.gov