The Modesto Fire Department offers fireplace safety tips: get them routinely checked and cleaned, only burning safe materials this winter.

A fireplace shop can help you find a manufactured metal collar for the diameter of the flue pipe that may also span across the opening of the 3 ½-foot by 4-foot chase.

The absence of the screen can leave you vulnerable to unwanted pests that can block or damage your flue pipe, and render your fireplace unusable until it is repaired.

A couple of weeks back, I responded to a question about dampness near a first-floor fireplace that our reader thought might be related to a recurring leak in the ceiling of the room above. Readers … ...

From Joe Ponessa, professor emeritus at Rutgers University and building-science consultant: If the chimney also contains the flue for a furnace or boiler, the other possible source of the water is ...