How do I protect my children from fireplace dangers?
If you like to burn fires in your home fireplace like we love to do, it's important to keep your fireplace safe by installing a protective hearth gate which is a heat-treated gate that is installed all the way around the front of your fireplace that disallows access to the fireplace, to the flame, to where all the cinders and ash are and to the whole front hearth. This keeps your babies safe and still allows you to be able to have a nice, toasty fire whenever you would like. There are also different ways to keep up a fireplace safe, and that is to install a fireplace lock. If you have the accordion glass door installed on your fireplace, these black, very effective, very obscure-looking - you can't even see that it's even there - locks can be installed, and the baby isn't allowed to pull the accordion doors open, making the fire totally safe. However, keep in mind that the baby still can get burned on the hot glass. So my favourite is the hearth gate because it keeps the child completely away from the hazardous fire and allows you to yet still enjoy burning fires in your home. If you have a hearth that has a brick or slate or perhaps marble hearth where your child can walk and fall and cut their head or forehead, it's important to install padding right on the edges so that your baby can't get injured if they fall near your fireplace. But again, is probably the best idea to put a hearth gate around the entire area, making the fireplace entirely safe.
