The Fire Place

We bought a house last winter with three fireplaces. Since we had not used them, nor knew if they were 1) clean 2) safe we hired The Fire Place to inspect them. The Fire Place assured me they were qualified to inspect and, if needed, clean fireplaces. I write this review to warn other potential customers - DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. They inspected our fireplaces, wrote up a brief report stating they were "ok" and informed me 2 of the fireplaces needed cleaning, but otherwise, all three looked fine. They could not schedule the cleaning until the following week, but offered that it "would be fine" for me to light a fire. They showed me how to work the fireplaces. All seemed well. My husband returned from work that evening, and we decided about to light a fire in one of the fireplaces, since we had been told they were safe to use. I EXACTLY followed the instructions given to me by these "experts" (flue open, etc) and within 2 hours heard my husband screaming for my help: our living room was black with toxic fumes and smoke, and it was beginning to rise upstairs where our children sleep. Though it was 20 degrees outside, we opened every door and window and kept the kids (one a seven month old baby) under heavy blankets for hours, up in the most distant bedroom where the air was still tolerable. Our kitchen fire extinguisher did not suffice to put out the fire completely; it took my husband 3 hours to haul the still burning logs out of the fireplace, then clean up the enormous mess, spread baking soda over all our smoke stenched furniture and singed, ruined carpets, etc. We just feel fortunate we did not go to BED an hour earlier and wake up choking on fumes and smoke in upstairs bedrooms with tiny children to try and evacuate in the middle of the night. I have no idea, still, why the fireplace did this. I am CERTAIN we opened the flue and did everything they said. The cost of the inspections was about 150$. Naturally we were upset. We wanted a refund and my husband called the company owner. He was belligerent and hostile to my husband when asked for a refund. He never showed any concern for our family, or the potential danger we had been in. He never offered to re-inspect the fireplace. He did return our check (at my husband's request), along with a scathing rude note which I will quote parts of here, to make certain anyone else thinking of using this company thinks twice. "Our time like yours is valuable and a chimney inspection is to look for safety concerns, not function unless a problem was previously noted. I feel angry and ripped off as YOU will if you [try] to find ANYBODY in this area to correct your problem - remember this is NOT DFW!" (referencing Dallas, where I mentioned I grew up in friendly conversation with his workers). Um, pardon my snark, but imho "safety concerns" and "functionality" tend to go hand in hand where something like a chimney is concerned? And I did CLEARLY tell his workmen we had NO IDEA the functionality of these chimneys; they knew we had never used them and have not lived in this house very long. Beware this company! They do not care about customers in the least and they do not know what they are doing. They have a monopoly on local business in our small town and clearly feel this exonerates them from the need to provide excellent work. I would not recommend them to anyone, for any reason. A week later my living room still stinks of smoke and ash. Smoke is very toxic; we are fortunate none of us were hurt!