Is a chimenea safer than an open fire?

A chimenea, whether it’s made of clay or metal, works like a giant radiator. It gets very hot. An open fire also gets very hot. Which is safest? Is a chiminea safer than an open fire?

Outdoor fire safety – Adults only?

If you’re heading outdoors for adult-only entertainment an open fire is fine unless you over-do the beers and fall in. A chimenea is equally safe unless you peak too early and topple it over, or lean on it and burn yourself. Such are the perils of alcohol 😉

There are similar dangers from clothing and even hair. You lean over the fire and your scarf catches light. We’ve seen it happen. You lean over the table in a romantic sort of way to speak sweet nothings to your lover and a candle sets your hair on fire. We have seen that happen as well, and it wasn’t funny until quite a long time afterwards. Grown ups can handle all this. Feel free to fire up a chiminea or an open fire and accept the risks as a sensible mature sort of person. But when there are kids and pets around, things change.

Fire, kids, and dogs

Imagine an excitable child or children, a dog or even a mixed pack of dogs-and-kids running around the garden having a great time. Overexcited kids and dogs don’t mix well with open fires. While a clay chimnea gets very hot and a cast iron one even hotter, the heat is contained. You can’t brush past a chiminea and set your clothes on fire, but you can’t say the same for actual flames. And there’s no way a child or dog could knock a chiminea over unless they were very determined to do it, had help, and had asbestos hands. Or paws. These things weigh a lot. The smallest cast iron chiminea we sell, the Billie, weighs in at 15kg.

If you don’t want your kids to end up looking like Victorian chimney sweeps, a chiminea contains almost all the ash in its fat belly. And there’s very little ash anyway. These nifty things burn too clean and hot for that, with hardly any waste. Sparks have a similar fate. While an open fire sends sparks far and wide, a chiminea prevents them escaping. It’s a design thing. This means a chim is also great when you don’t want to re-wash the clothes on your line because they’re all smutty with escaping sparks and ash, or drive your neighbours nuts with smoke. Chimeneas don’t smoke like an open fire.

About cats and fire

Is a chimenea safer than an open fire? The discussion continues. How about cats, our feline masters? We’ve seen plenty of cats getting into chimineas when the clay is cool. They like to be safely surrounded with their backs to the wall and a good view. But they don’t do it when the clay is too hot. They’re not daft.

It’s safer for cats to lounge around a hot chiminea than lounge around an open fire, where they can potentially set themselves alight or catch fire through stray sparks. Because cats like to get as close to a heat source as they can, more or less on top of it, a chim keeps felines out of trouble.

Supervising the hot stuff

Supervision is important, of course. It’s never a good idea to leave an open fire burning unattended, especially with kids and animals around, although you can always chuck a bucket of cold water or two over it to kill the heat fast.

A burning chiminea is safer to leave to cool off without you watching, simply because the fire is safely contained. But never throw water on or into a hot chim. It could crack the clay or break it into pieces because of the sudden change in temperature.

So is a chimenea safer than an open fire?

It depends, as you’ve seen. But the chimenea wins in quite a few circumstances. It also looks nicer than an open fire, which leaves an awful mess and a scar on the ground once it has died down. It’s easier and more fun to cook great food on a chiminea than on an open fire, and a lot safer. And your chimenea looks great as well as being usable in every season. Crowd a load of guests around it safely, enjoy oodles of radiated heat, stand close without burning your bits and bobs. We vote for the chimenea. How about you?