Before you even start to build your fireplace fire, there are four things you'll want to do. First, since the last thing you want is a chimney fire, be sure you have had your chimney inspected and cleaned within the past year. A good cleaning removes the build-up of flammable creosote.

Second, remove all but about an inch of ashes from the floor of your fireplace. A handy way to remove these ashes is with a vacuum specially designed to remove cold ashes from your fireplace.

Third, look up your chimney to make sure the damper is open. A 'throat damper' is located at the bottom of the chimney and will open with a lever or with chain-pulls. If you have a 'top damper,' it's located at the top of the chimney and you open it by pulling a cable.

Fourth, cleared your hearth of anything flammable. You don't want a stray spark to start a fire anyplace other than inside the firebox!

At last you are ready to start making your fireplace fire. Crumble two or three sheets of paper such as that old standby, yesterday's newspaper. Avoid burning plastics or paper with color printing (such as the Sunday comics, magazines, or gift wrapping paper) as they give off toxic fumes. Put the crumbled paper on your fireplace grate. The grate elevates your fire, allowing it to pull in plenty of air to keep a good draft going up the chimney.

Now you have a choice. On top of the crumbled paper, you can put a handful of pine kindling strips (pieces of pine about half an inch wide and about 10 inches long) topped in a criss-cross pile with half a dozen dry pieces of hardwood about 1 inch square by a foot long. The easier way is just to top the crumbled paper with a couple of sticks of fatwood, a natural firestarter. Fatwood comes from the stumps of pine trees, the section of the trees that naturally collects the highly combustible resinous sap or pitch. Purchased in easy-to-use sticks about 8 inches long, fatwood is known as nature's one-match firestarter.

If you are using the fatwood method, add 3 pieces of split, dried firewood on top of the fatwood. If you are using the kindling-hardwood combination, do not add the split firewood yet.

You want the first puffs of smoke from your fireplace fire to go up the chimney, not into your room. So establish an upward flow of air in your flue by crumbling another couple of sheets of paper, lighting them, and holding them up inside the fireplace. This pre-warming gets that upward flow of warm air going.

At last it's time to light your fireplace fire! Light the paper in your grate from each end. If you are using fatwood, the paper will light the fatwood that in turn lights the split firewood.

If you are using the kindling-hardwood method, when the paper lights the kindling and the kindling lights the hardwood, it is time to add 2 or 3 pieces of split firewood to the fire.

As the fire burns, use the tongs from your fireplace tool set to add more split firewood as needed. Place a fireplace screen or spark guard in front of the fire to protect your home and loved ones. Now, sit back and enjoy your fireplace fire!