Before you fire up the hearth this season, take precautions to make sure your celebrations don't go up in flames.

Wear and tear on fireplaces, wood burning stoves, other fire-breathing appliances often begin insidiously, like a cancer.

A hairline crack, for instance, first lets heat and gases escape. That can eventually crack the liner and expose the wood frame to intense heat and eventually fire.

By the time the fire inside the chimney or fireplace erupts, it could be too explosive to stop.

Both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the California Real Estate Inspection Association recommend an annual inspection to check the fireplace or wood-burning appliance, chimney, flues and vents for blockage, leakage, damage or other problems.

In some communities, fire fighting officials will visit your home and give the hearth a cursory once over, looking for obvious signs of damage, deterioration or other problems.

Chimney sweeps, private inspectors, general contractors, structural engineers and masonry contractors, if properly trained, can all give a fireplace, stove, chimney or flue and vents a more thorough going over. Such safety inspections can be $100 or less. Be sure the inspector is licensed or trade-group or guild certified to perform the task.

Some inspectors will offer to lower a video camera into your flue for a close-up inspection, but flue damage is fairly obvious to the trained naked eye when smoke tests are also used.

When a fireplace is regularly used for heating, but hasn't been cleaned since last season, a chimney sweep may be most beneficial, at least first, because he or she is trained to clear out creosote and other debris that might otherwise hide damage.

Following the cleaning, a trained sweep or other professional can then also inspect for damage.

Heavily used hearths can yield a host of problems that include a corroded or inoperable metal smoke damper, a damaged metal ash dump cover, eroded mortar joints inside a masonry fire box, improper clearance from combustible materials at the hearth opening or at the chimney within the attic space, a cracked flue liner or no flue liner in older chimneys, a damaged or missing spark arrestor and a damaged cement cap at the chimney top which can allow moisture to seep into the chimney and deteriorate the system.

You can check the sturdiness of the chimney above the roof line. If it moves with a slight tug, it's probably broken.

If your professional inspection turns up the need for extensive repairs or replacement, especially on a masonry fireplace, costs can be prohibitive. Some cities' tough building codes, however, mandate that a certain level of fireplace damage warrants tearing out old masonry fireplaces and flues and rebuilding them to code.

Allow only licensed masonry contractors to perform major work on your masonry fireplace and chimney. General contractors and structural engineers are not trained in the highly specialized masonry field. Sweeps and private inspectors generally are not licensed to perform major construction or repair work on any fireplace structure.

In any event, it's not a good idea to allow the fireplace/chimney inspector to also perform corrective work for any defects reported because of the inherent conflict of interest.

Instead, get a written report from the inspection specialist, then hire a professional to do the work.

To find a mason, get referrals from trusted sources, including structural engineers, general contractors, building inspectors and chimney sweeps. Chances are neighbors, family members and friends, who own homes, have had to contact one or more of these professionals in the last year. Ask the professional repairing, rebuilding or installing a new fire place or wood-burning appliance for proof of license and insurance and ask to see some of his or her handy work.

Alternatives to a rebuilt masonry fireplace can include cheaper, less damage-prone, free-standing wood burning stoves, inserts or built-in fireplaces.

They can be installed and repaired by general contractors, carpenters or similar qualified professionals.

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