House had fire from over-use of fireplace

[Jeff S.]

Bought a foreclosure house that had been on fire. In reading the fire report it was stated as the cause: "excessive usage of fireplaces over time that had an ongoing pyrolysis to the wood structure members."

The owner stated her husband had been using the fireplaces for about 3 hours burning papers and clothes and had been using it a lot lately.

They didn't know it was on fire until the wife saw smoke coming out of the eves from the outside.

Do you have fireplaces in your rentals? I have 2.

[Adam Johnson]

I don't know if your insurance knows of the fireplaces, but I would be VERY careful. If they don't know of the fireplaces, you may not be covered in the event of a fire.

That was an indirect answer to your question. More directly, I would NEVER have a fireplace in a rental. I used to own a 3-unit that had an old coal fireplace in one of the units. I clearly told the tenants that it was out of service and that the chimney was capped off. It seemed to work, but made me nervous still just by the fact that it existed.

Regarding the fire story you shared, fireplaces are not intended to burn papers/clothes. This is a great example of why I don't want tenants to have access to one. Many tenants don't use or even have common sense with regards to your property. Giving them a ready made way to burn your house down is dangerous!