Fireplaces fire starters?

I believe that the higher the handiness skill of your sim starting the fire the less likely it will start a fire.

You can improve your fireplace with a fire gard. ( I do not know if it is the exact word, my game is in french). It helps.

"treece01;c-17013257" wrote:
I believe that the higher the handiness skill of your sim starting the fire the less likely it will start a fire.

Thanks, might very well be true. But often when I enter a new home with a fireplace, the fireplace might already be lit (by the game obviously, as it even happens in Oasis Springs during Summer). So I can't really know the level of handiness. Don't think the flames says "started by Alma", liked prepared food do. Would be quite nifty, though :)

do not put rugs in front of the fireplace!

I get more fires started by the dang incense from Spa Day than fireplaces. :#

The last time I had a fireplace in my game, it kept catching the ceiling light fixture on fire. Don't even ask me how, because the light fixture was well out of reach of any fire (extremely tall walls and several building squares away).

I had a fire start from a fireplace was when one of my played households went to another played household's house that had a fireplace going when I played them last. That was the only time in over 1800 hours of game play where I have seen a fireplace fire. However, I usually have my sims level up their practical skills (cooking/handiness/charisma) right away when I start out, that and not all my households have fireplaces, so that may be why.

I don't think any sims that lived there with the fireplace had handiness, now that some simmers have mentioned it. I didn't realize it could be related. I would try a sim with no handiness in a bad mood with objects close to the fireplace if you wanted to try to start one...but of course us simmers would never do that on purpose... >:)

On a side note, I don't think urns or tombstones can catch on fire. They're already hard enough to delete on purpose.


Let me know if you start a fireplace fire, I'd like to know the conditions that would start one.

I find it's stuff directly on front of it (rugs, footstool, chair) that would catch light. I've literally piled rugs and clutter in front of one to cause a fire and it never lit, seems very low chance.

If you want automatic protection put a fire alarm in and the fire sprinkler box, together it'll activate sprinklers in the house quickly.

"Ziafar;c-17013258" wrote:
You can improve your fireplace with a fire gard. ( I do not know if it is the exact word, my game is in french). It helps.

It's right :) just spelt "fire guard" in English.

I had one of my sims get set on fire by a fireplace. Sure enough I exited without saving because I didn’t want anything to happen to her (she lived but I there was nobody home.)

"Simmerville;c-17013757" wrote:
Thanks for input so far!

I'm not afraid of fires, only about losing valuable belongings that can not be replaced - such as old photos or paintings. Because the fireplace often is positioned on a central spot in the house, like an alter in a way, it also works well as a natural spot to expose photos and what not.

I take it that it would be better removing those family photos from the fireplace, keeping the urn there but rather add some flowers or general decor. Hm, I would never place a vase with flowers on top of a fireplace due to the temperature would kill the poor flowers, but then again we don't need to be toooo realistic in the sims' world :)

In my game I focus very little on skills, especially the mechanic skill. In a house I just played I even discovered that a large floor carpet was placed *under* the fireplace, obviously a mistake due to bb.moveobjects being on. Still, nothing of this caused fires. I might have seen 1 or 2 fireplace fires since game release in 2014, not all my houses have a fire place, though.

My toddler put an empty plate on the mantel, and that started a fire.

As for the flowers, there are some rules I stick to, even if they don't have consequences in the game, just because I want my Sims to be somewhat realistic. I never drag plates to the trash; they have to clean up after themselves. However, since I had the fire, I'll drag a plate left on the mantel to a less dangerous place.