Fireplace Advice Needed

[Mark Gabriel]

New investor looking for some advice on a fireplace in a rental property (See below). I do not want to deal with the liability of allowing tenants to use the fireplace, so we have a clause in the contract that stipulates that the fireplace is not operational and is never to be used by tenants. Would be interested if anyone has any experience with temporarily shutting down a fireplace on a rental property and how they handled the front-facing portion. Thanks!

P.S. This is a wood-fired fireplace not gas.