Fireplaces, Heating Stoves, Flues and Chimneys - New fireplace owner

We have moved into a house with a fireplace and have no idea how to use it. Not only that but I'm not sure how long the home was vacant before we moved in. I checked with our landlord and was told there is not a screen at the top to prevent birds or other animals getting in. There is a floo(sp) but, again, I'm not sure how to operate this either. Also when it rains the fireplace leaks water onto the hearth. What do I need to do to get these things rectified by our landlord?

If you owned the property I would suggest that you hire the services of a certified chimney sweep to inspect the chimney and give you a written report on its condition along with recommendations on using it.

You can still do that on your own and consider it a good investment or perhaps your landlord would pay for it.
You did the right thing by asking as too many people would just throw in a couple of logs and assume everything was good to go.

As far as the specifics of making a fire the basic way to start a fire is to start with tinder which is small thin wispy slivers of wood or paper beneath kindling, slightly larger pieces starting at the thickness of a Popsicle stick beneath increasingly larger split pieces of wood.

The biggest mistake with building a fire is starting with too large of pieces of wood.

Here is the first of several articles on fireplace maintenance:

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http://images.doityourself.com/stry/c/chimneyproblems.jpg (http://www.doityourself.com/stry/ara_chimneymaintenan)