I know it’s tempting to burn anything that will produce heat, but as you will read below it’s important to understand that burning some types of wood can put your health at risk.
Here is a list of 11 kinds of wood that should not be burned in a fireplace. Some of these varieties shouldn’t be burned because they produce harmful toxins which are very dangerous for you to breath. Others are very flammable and can put your at risk for a chimney fire.
Take a look at the 11 wood types below to find out more and then check out the 7 other common household items that you should avoid burning.
11 Kinds of Wood Not to Burn in Your Fireplace
1. Green Wood or Unseasoned Wood
Wood that makes the best firewood for a fireplace is seasoned wood not green wood. Depending on the species of wood, needs to season for about 12 months. Green wood if burned in a fireplace will typically result in a lot of smoke and creosote build up in your chimney. All firewood will create some amounts of creosote, but green wood will produce the most.
Creosote is nothing more than a condensation of small, unburned particles contained in the smoke that coats the chimney surface as it exits. The creosote will stick to the sides of the chimney and can ignite, causing a chimney fire. It’s best not to burn green wood in your fireplace if you can avoid it.
2. Non-Local Wood
If you are buying firewood, be sure to only buy local wood. Ask the seller where he got the wood from and don’t buy it if the wood came
These pests move slowly on their own, but with our help they can put new forests at risk. Buying non-local wood and stacking and storing it on your property, can give these insects just the right opportunity to damage more forests and the trees on your own property. By buying local wood you can feel fairly confident that nothing foreign or destructive will be introduced to your trees.
3. Christmas Trees
This might seem like a funny one to put on the list, but you would be surprised at how many people burn their old Christmas trees in their fireplace. So what is the real danger? Well, Christmas trees have an abundance of dry needles that can catch on fire super quickly and the tree has a ton of sap, which is super flammable and full of creosote that can clog up your chimney. Because Christmas trees are loaded with sap that burns quickly and pops, embers may rise quickly through your chimney and can start a chimney fire. It’s best to avoid burning this tempting firewood in your indoor fireplace.
4. Driftwood
While you will get beautiful blue and lavender flames burning driftwood, it is not recommended to burn in your fireplace. When burned it is a big source of dioxin, which is a toxin to humans. Instead of burning driftwood in your fireplace use it as a decoration piece in your home as a memory of your trip to the coast.
5. Poisonous wood
6. Oleander
Oleander trees are beautiful to look at but toxic in all its parts. You will also see it grown as a shrub and is one of the most poisonous commonly grown garden plants. It also goes by the name Nerium. They typically grow along rivers and streams and have beautiful flowers either white, pink, or red.
Humans and animals are sensitive to its toxicity. Ingestion of the plant can affect your gastrointestinal system, your heart, and the central nervous system. Don’t burn your food over it, don’t toast marshmallows on a stick from it, and don’t breath in its smoke.
7. Endangered Species
Just as there are endangered animals in our world there are also trees that are at risk of extinction. It’s best to avoid burning them if you have any other options available to you. The Maple-Leaf Oak, Florida Yew and Fraser Fir are just a few to mention. The decline in some populations of tree species is due to logging combined with a lack of fire. Some trees, like the Longleaf Pine, must experience a forest fire for its seeds to germinate. Longleaf Pine are listed as endangered, but some say they should be qualified as critically endangered if a thorough assessment was done.
Other trees, such as Red Oak, fall prey to attacks from funguses. It spreads overland and through root grafts between trees. It doesn’t take very long, just a few months, for the tree to die. The Fraser Fir is in danger because of an insect called the balsam woolly Adelgid. Once the tree is infected with the insect it basically starves to death.
8. Plywood, particle board, or chipboard
Similarly, plywood should not be burned in your fireplace. Don’t burn it at all inside or outside. The layers of sheet material is glued together. This glue when burned creates toxic smoke that is harmful to your body. If you have a building project, best to calculate as accurately as possible how much plywood you need so you don’t have extra lying around. If you just really need to get rid of it take it to a land-fill. That is much better than burning it.
9. Painted or stained wood
It might be tempting to burn whatever wood you can get your hands on, but think twice before burning painted or stained wood in your fireplace. Painted or stained wood can contain toxic chemicals that are released when burned and are dangerous for you to breathe. Often times you will find people wondering what to do with their painted or stained wood after a remodel or a building has been torn down.
10. Pressure Treated Lumber
Pressure treated wood contains wood preservatives that are intended to extend the life of the wood and prevent it from rotting, weathering and being eaten by insects. Often times people use pressure treated wood for building decks of other outdoor structures that they want to be beautiful and last for years to come. You should never burn it though.
When you burn it in your fireplace it releases all of those toxic chemicals into the air for you to breathe. It’s best to repurpose pressure treated lumber or dispose of it in a landfill.
11. Wood Pallets
I know it’s tempting to want to burn any kind of wood you can get your hands on, but please don’t burn wood pallets in your fireplace. Some pallets are treated with chemicals, which you don’t want to breathe and have fill your home. Nowadays there are tons of things you can do with old wooden pallets to repurpose the wood. If you aren’t a crafty person, consider giving them to someone who is. They can make bookshelves, coffee tables, swings, shoe organizers, and all kinds of things out of old pallets.
7 BONUS MATERIALS
1. Cardboard
Fireplaces are designed to burn wood but sometimes we treat them like a trash can and throw whatever we have lying around into them. What about cardboard? Is it ok to burn cardboard in your fireplace? Well, actually, its not a good idea. For one, cardboard contains man-made chemicals, which when burned can release hazardous fumes into the air that are harmful for us to breath. Also, there is the danger that the cardboard can float into the air as it is burning and leave the fireplace if a screen is not in place. You may also cause an outside fire if the cardboard pieces travel up the flue and out the chimney. It’s best to avoid burning cardboard in your fireplace.
2. Trash
Just like burning cardboard in your fireplace, burning trash in your fireplace is not a good idea. Trash will give off chemical emissions that are not healthy for us to breath and depending on what kind of trash it can produce a very unpleasant smell in your house. I know it’s tempting to treat your fireplace like an incinerator, but don’t. This includes table scraps, cereal boxes, egg crates, wrappers, etc.
3. Plastic
4. Paper
I’m sure you can picture lighting a piece of paper and then watching it catch a draft and go airborne. This will happen to you if you burn paper without a screen on your fireplace. The danger with paper is that it can also go up and out your chimney and cause an outdoor fire. Be very careful if you choose to burn paper in your fireplace. One way to help minimize flying fire balls is to tightly twist your paper tightly before igniting them.
5. Magazines
Rather than burning all of those unwanted magazines you might try donating them to bless someone else’s life. Some places that would benefit from your second-hand magazines would be your local library, nursing home or retirement community, or doctors and dentist offices.
6. Styrofoam
You probably have an excess of styrofoam lying around your house. It’s everywhere and commonly used as padding for packaging items, even food items. A lot of vegetables come on a styrofoam tray that you are left to dispose of. If you burn it you will be releasing a gas that can effect the nervous system. It doesn’t burn well, but rather burns with a black sooty flame. Best to keep it as packing material for a future package or find some other way to dispose of it like donating it to a craft shop in town.
7. Coal
Conclusion
So be a little bit picky when you choose what to burn in your fireplace. You don’t want to cause a chimney fire or release harmful toxins into the air for you and your family to breath. Just because it’s free wood doesn’t make it a great and healthy source of heat. When in doubt, it’s best to do a little research before stoking your fire with toxic wood.
Have I missed anything? Please let me know down in the comments!
You make an excellent point when you mention how you should refrain from putting garbage in your fireplace since they can release unhealthy chemical emissions in the air. My wife and I are interested in getting a fireplace to keep our cats warm during an incoming storm, but we want to make sure that we do not accidentally burn anything that could compromise our pets’ health. We’ll be sure to be careful about how we use the fireplace we get.
Thank you for mentioning how burning green wood in your fireplace will generate an excessive amount of creosote. My wife and I would like to get a fireplace for our home before it snows next month, but we aren’t sure if we should burn the oak wood that we have in our backyard. We’ll be sure to find out what kind of wood should be burned in the fireplace we get.
Is walnut OK to use as firewood?
Hi Gary. Yes, walnut is good for firewood. Here’s my article on that topic that you might find helpful. https://downtoearthhomesteaders.com/is-walnut-good-for-firewood/
Dear Julie
I did some cutting back on an estimated 150 year old Yew Tree. just a tidy up and to lift the canopy a bit.
I left all the cuttings with foliage ready to burn for about a month.
When I came to burn it, the leaves were still very green, it was a very difficult bonfire, and I was caught up in the smoke a lot, with the wind being very turbulent I found myself consuming a lot of thick smoke.
I fell very ill over the next few days, they found an infection in the lower right lung.
I have read that Yew Tree smoke can be toxic.
Have you any comment on this that may help.
Regards
George
I’m sorry to hear that you were sick. Sounds like you inhaled a lot of smoke. Sorry, but I don’t have any helpful information for you about Yew Trees. Hope your infection is gone now.
I replaced a 30 year old deck that had treated lumber. The treated lumber is still burnable in my fireplace. Is it safe to burn since it is 30+ years old?
Thank you!
Burning treated lumber is not advisable. Burning it in your fireplace will give off fumes that are harmful for you to breathe. Thanks for your comment.
I have some oak logs that I split but notice that they are somewhat blackened. They were trunk pieces from a tree that had been topped off so just the trunk remained.
Will these blackened pieces still be good and safe to burn?
I don’t see why not, but if you are skeptical maybe you could just burn them outside instead.
Great site! We have a horse farm with 20 year old oak fence boards that were originally painted with black fence paint (yes, water-based paint — not creosote). They were again spray painted in 2009 with the same kind of paint. The paint is virtually gone from all but cracks and deep creases. This is 3-board fencing and cross fencing on 10 acres so there are a lot of these boards I’m replacing. Can these be burned in my home fireplace?
Thank you. I would not recommend using them as firewood. Even though you say most of the paint is gone, the paint most likely seeped into the oak. Maybe an alternative would be to have a bon fire outside with them! 🙂
Are crepe Myrtle branches okay to burn?
We have been burning wood from a previous forrest fire, oak and juniper from northern Arizona. There is a lot of black soot escaping the guard and up, causing dark blacking up my mantle and staining the deer head hanging just above it. There may also be cottonwood being burned. Some of the woods appear to have some type infestation, insects and/or parasites. Can humans contract any diseases? I and my roommate have thick chest mucus and strange ulcerated lesions.
It sounds like you have a draft problem and that you should go see a doctor.
would like to know if cedar is ok to burn in a wood stove Thank you and stay safe
We burn cedar all the time in our wood stove, but mostly we use it for kindling as a fire starter! It lights great when dry! 🙂
We have alot of brush oak trees that I would like to cut and use the trunk for firewood.
Is this okay to burn in the fireplace after seasoned?
Is it okay to BBQ with the wood from a oak tree that a neighbor killed with a strong herbicide?
Sounds risky to me. Cooking food you plan to consume over poisons. I would skip it.
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Thank you for your kind comment. I am glad you think our articles are informative and helpful. 🙂
Christmas tree(pine) sap does not contain excess creosote. That’s a huge myth that goes back to old wood stoves burning low and accumulating tons of creosote in the chimney. When someone would then go and burn pine, it would burn hot and then light all that accumulated creosote on fire. Its not the trees fault.
Thanks for you comment Ben. 🙂
Palm tree wood or the outside bark of it. I’m new to the Florida State. And I want to know what kinds of species of tree is not healthy to have in a open face fireplace to heat a house.
I was told Pecan wood burning in your house could cause your pets to go into convulsions is this true
I have not heard of this. Can you share your source with me?
Is it safe to burn milled wood in a fireplace?
Sure! We had a lot of scrap lumber left over from our cabin build that we burned in our wood stove. Not as good as seasoned split wood, but burned ok.
IS it OK to burn wood from very tall acacia trees?
I was told today by a wood stove dealer that burning off cuts of lumber such as dry 2×4 fur is bad for my wood stove and can burn so hot that it may cause chimney fire. What say you ?
We have been burning our scrap lumber with no problems. We don’t burn the scraps exclusively, but add them in over time with other seasoned firewood. Hope this helps.
i want to burn chestnut and oak that is possibly 500 years old some has wood worm
Hello
The point of an electric fireplace is not only to provide heat but also light up the room with the fire. The flames are patented still people prefer them to give off a great vibe to their room, the exact same one that is given off with the traditional fireplace.
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Thank you. So glad you appreciate this article. 🙂
Why does some wood leave rock hard ash? We have local test tree here that burns well but leaves ash that’s just like rock and very hard to clean?
Tea tree**
Don’t know Barbara. We don’t have tea tree where we live. It could just be the chemical make up of the wood. If you find out please be sure to let us know. 🙂
Is it ok to burn scrap lumber from a home construction site in our fireplace?
We definitely did. Just remember it will burn hot so its recommended you mix it with other firewood.
This is what is called clinkers, Elm will do this. The reason behind it is that Elm contains silica. Any wood that contains silica will form clinkers.
Is it safe to cook with pre burnt Protea wood? It was a completely uprooted protea bush that had been burnt by a mountain fire. Just wondering if it’s safe to cook with. Many thanks for the info.
Hello Cathi. I haven’t read anywhere that it would be toxic or unsafe to burn, but it may be that there just isn’t enough data out there on the Protea species. If you do choose to burn your bush you may find that it’s corky tissues make the job difficult. I hope that this helps a little bit.
Is it ok to burn dry (from previous year) trumpet vine? I tried it and it took a long time to catch on fire.
Hi Joanne, I haven’t read anywhere that it would be toxic to burn trumpet vine, but it may just be that there isn’t enough data out there yet. If it is becoming a nuisance to you you may try mowing down the vine in order to keep it in check. I hope this helps you a little bit. 🙂
Thank you for the info. I am always burning wood in our fireplace and it’s good to know what is and isn’t safe to burn.
That’s great Amy! So glad this information was helpful. Do you burn firewood in a fireplace or wood stove?
Thank you . We just got a house with a fire place and good to know what woods not to burn in it. Sheila Wessels
You’re very welcome! Glad this article was helpful to you. 🙂