AUSTIN — Before lighting your fireplace, the Austin Fire Department wants you to know a few things about fireplace safety.
Check for burnt residue. Fires can start from old wood that has not been cleaned.
Inspect the chimney for any cracks.
When you are ready to start the fire, open the flue – the pipe that brings the gases out.
AFD said it has already had three calls in the last two days of people who had smoke in their home because they did not open the flue, and the smoke did not escape.
Another thing: burn only hard woods.
"That's oak,” Palmer Buck, Division Chief for the Austin Fire Department, said. “For the most part, that's readily available in Texas. Not your pines, not your cedar. That makes a lot of popping and really bright light -- but it also burns really hot. And that can also cause chimney fire."
Also stick to burning only wood.
“Not paper, trash, anything like that,” Buck said. “That might burn hotter or more rapidly."
AFD also said to make sure you have a screen to stop any embers from coming out.
And one of the most important pieces of advice is don't scoop out hot embers and put them in your trash, even if you think they are cooled down. Add water and put them in a metal pan to put them out.