If you have an outdoor firepit, then there are safety precautions that must be taken to protect the vegetation around your home like grass and trees as well as the home itself. The last thing you want is for your enjoyable outdoor fire to get out of control and burn down your house. Some of these safety precautions are small and others require a bit more planning and construction.
The first thing you want to do is to make sure that there is at least a ten foot radius around the fire pit in every direction including up with no flammable materials in it. Ideally, your outdoor fire basins will be in the center of a dirt circle where you place chairs and the like to sit and enjoy the fire. Cut away any branches that might hang down low over the fire because a flying spark is a great way to catch a tree on fire.
The next most important thing is to have a firepit screen to protect you and the objects around the fire. You want the screen so that it can catch any embers or sparks that might fly out of the fire. This is more of a concern with a wood burning fireplace than with a gas fireplace. Gas fireplaces are much safer because the flame tends to be more stable and there are less sparks flying from the hearth. However, you do need to have a fuel source and propane tanks can be dangerous if they are stored too close to the fire.
If you do not want to clear away all the flammable materials from around your fire and you are insisting on a wood burning fireplace, then you might consider building fireplace surrounds for your outdoor firepits. Instead of just a pit, you can build an entire stone fireplace surround where the fire can burn safely without fear of it spreading to nearby vegetation. The stone will keep the fire from spreading.
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