A fireplace safety gate offers more reassuring protection from fireplaces than using foam padding or other ad-hoc solutions like pool noodles. While fireplace safety gates cost more, they have a number of advantages.

Made from iron or heat resistant steel, they're heavy enough to prevent pets and toddlers from knocking them down easily, whereas foam pads can be pulled without too much effort. Pool noodles come in bright colors that temp children to play with them. Fireplace gates, on the other hand, are boringly monochrome, and look like more or less permanent fixtures that aren't perceived as toys.

One nice feature of fireplace safety gates is portability. Not only can they be used to shield fireplaces, but they can be used on patios and decks, placed around outdoor grills and stoves. Many safety gates feature a segment with an adult release latch, so the entire gate doesn't have to be moved just to access the grill. Fireplace doors, on the other hand, are stuck in place, and offer less of a space buffer between the child and the flame, not to mention the sharp corners of the surrounding brick.

A typical fireplace gate is approximately 6 feet wide (as an arc with the a 3-foot radius) and 30 inches tall, which should be high enough to keep kids from trying to climb it. To accommodate extra-wide fireplaces, additional panels can be purchased. It's a good idea to measure the width of your fireplace beforehand to ensure that the gate's default set of segments will cover it, since extra segments are not cheap.

Another advantage over fireplace glass doors is that fireplace safety gates can fall, and are quite noisy when hitting the floor. That may not seem like a feature, but for a parents that happen to have the eyes elsewhere when their kids decide to play with the fireplace, the loud crash provides and excellent alert, and startles kids into jumping away from rather than into the fireplace.

For any parents who use their fireplace on a regular basis, but can't monitor their living room every second they have the fire going, a fireplace safety gate is the most versatile and practical form of protection.