The winter months bring colder weather and colder weather brings home heating to new highs. It is estimated that over one third of all Americans have a fireplace, electric fireplace insert or wood burning stove as the source of heat in their home. While these types of heat sources can be nice for many reasons such as cost efficiency, environmental friendliness, or simply lovely home ambiance, with fireplaces, electric fireplace inserts, and wood burning stoves comes extra safety responsibilities.

It is estimated that there is a civilian home fire related death every three hours in the United States. Sadly, most of these deaths would have been prevented had the home owners followed a few simple fireplace safety rules. Presumably, all home owners know that keeping their chimney (if the home has a chimney) inspected and well maintained is a high priority in fire safety. A second common sense fire safety tip is maintaining your fire safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and smoke alarms. But there is much more you can do to prevent the thousands of fire related home injuries that occur every year. Just take a look at the following fire safety tips:

Keep anything that could ignite and catch on fire (also known as combustible material) at least three feet away from your heat source. Combustible material includes newspapers, firewood, kindling, matches, and artificial logs (such as Duraflame ® logs, etc.) Basically anything that could catch on fire must be at least three feet away from your fire source.

Install some type of screen to cover the fireplace opening that will keep sparks from flying out of your fireplace. Sparks may jump a surprising distance from a fire, and it only takes one small spark to start a very large fire. Aside from starting a fire in your home, a person who is hit by a stray spark could be burned or otherwise injured.

Do not use flammable liquids such as gasoline, kerosene, or lighter fluid to start or restart a fire. Using flammable liquids such as these could cause an explosion. Also, be sure to keep any flammable liquids several feet away from your heat source. The vapors from flammable liquids can travel many feet and explode as well. Keep your eye on things you may not ordinarily think to be dangerous such as glues and paints from craft projects as these things can be highly flammable and produce flammable vapors as well.

If you are using artificial logs in your fireplace, make sure you use them one at a time. Do not build an entire fire solely out of artificial logs. These types of logs produce a lot more heat than regular wood logs and this can damage your fireplace causing it to be unsafe for future use.

Do not leave your home with a fire burning in your fireplace or with your eclectic fireplace insert turned on. Make sure your fire is completely extinguished before leaving your home, even for a brief period of time. The same goes for your electric fireplace insert. Do not leave your home while any electric fireplaces are running. Simply turn it off before you walk out the door.