What is the safest fireplace for kids and pets?

The hazard nobody warns you about: the glass

Open flames scare parents, but the thing we point at first in the showroom is the glass front on a gas fireplace — it gets extremely hot in use and stays hot well after the fire is off. That's exactly why modern gas units come with a mesh barrier screen that stands off the glass, and why we won't consider a family-room install finished without one. Toddler-height glass, a curious dog nose, a crawling baby — the screen is what protects all three. Pets learn the boundary fast; kids take longer.

What we'd put in a house full of small people

If you want the safest possible option, it's electric — the Dimplex IgniteXL Bold 50 gives you a convincing 50-inch flame with no gas, no combustion, and far less surface heat than anything that burns. It even runs a flame-only mode, so the fire can "be on" for bedtime ambiance without heating at all.

If you want a real fire, choose direct-vent gas with the factory barrier screen — a unit like the Napoleon Ascent 36. The flame is sealed behind glass, there are no embers, nothing to poke, and the whole thing shuts off with a switch when the evening winds down.

Burning wood with kids in the house

It can be done safely — families have managed it for generations — but it demands screens, hearth gates, hot tools stored out of reach, and the discipline to remember that ash stays hot overnight. We convert wood fireplaces to gas for young families weekly, and this is usually the reason: a sealed gas insert ends the ember-and-ash question entirely while keeping the fire everyone gathers around. The gas line is licensed work in North Carolina, and it's our lane — call (828) 545-0525 for a free in-home assessment, or bring the kids by the Asheville showroom and let them see the screens up close.