If you have a wood burning stove or fireplace, yearly inspections can save lives, according to Career Firefighter Marc Schweitzer with Weyburn Fire Services.

"It's recommended. You can bring somebody in for it, and what they're looking for is maybe if it's a clay chute, any chipping any cracking of that, if the mortar is falling off, or if it's chipped," he explained.

He said there should also be attention paid to whether or not there is a build up of creosote, a dangerous carbonacious chemical.

"If you have a wood burning fireplace in your house, an inspector would probably check the dampers, making sure they're working properly," said Schweitzer. "If the dampers aren't working then that could induce smoke to, you know, be in your house and that's definitely not good."

"But most most people are going away from wood burning fireplaces and putting natural gas inserts into that, so it's just an easier thing to do."

While yearly inspections aren't required, except when you're buying a house, a fireplace or a wood-burning stove translates to higher premiums on home insurance policies. And, if you have a wood burning stove or fireplace in your home, chances are you already knew that.

According to Debbie Dodman, a Personalized Home Broker at Andrew Agencies, it depends on the type of heating source in the home.

"It does depend on the type of fireplace or heating source that the home actually has, because there are multiple different heating sources that people use as a primary heating source or a secondary heating source. The one we do see more common is the fireplace. You've got your wood burning fireplace, there are also the pellet stoves that you know it kind of feeds in to continuously provide the heat through the home," she explained.

"If the client is in question about their fireplace or you know their heating system to the home in general, they need to reach out to their personalized home broker and have the discussion with them just to make sure everything is insured correctly, if they have any questions or in in doubt."

Dodman added the electric, non-gas, non-wood fireplaces don't raise insurance premiums.