Printed from smellbook.com/smells/fireplace. This printout keeps the entry for Fireplace itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A warm indoor environment combining wood smoke, ash, heated stone or metal and domestic comfort.
Setting: domestic. An editorial word for the kind of place or occasion the smell belongs to, not a smell word.
A fireplace smells warm, smoky and woody, combining burning logs, soft ash and heated stone or metal. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
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Links SmellBook records for this entry: where you meet it, molecules, related smells and comparisons. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT FIREPLACE
A fireplace smells warm, smoky and woody, combining burning logs, soft ash and heated stone or metal. The smoke is dry and slightly sweet, strongest when a fire is lit or stirred. After the fire dies, a cooler, ashy smell remains in the room and on fabrics. It is often confused with a bonfire, though a fireplace feels more enclosed and domestic.
It is met in living rooms with an open hearth or stove, in country inns and cottages, and on winter evenings when fires are lit. Chimney smoke drifting along a street on cold days carries a lighter version.
Typical settings: living room, hearth, winter evening.
SmellBook links it to one place page: see it in Connections.
One VERIFIED scientific claim from one published source is recorded for this entry: Phenols in fireplace smoke depend on the wood. This claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
The scientific study behind this evidence is chemistry or emission work, not a study of how the smell is perceived.
2 molecules are named in this claim; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. The molecules this claim names were detected or measured in the study. The claim does not say they shape the smell.
Fireplace differs from Campfire by indoor context, materials and domestic association.
SmellBook records 2 written comparisons with other smells: see them in Connections.
Words that are easy to mix up: When does woody become smoky?, Is every warm smell spicy? and When is woody also resinous?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 1 claim
Phenols in fireplace smoke depend on the wood
Burned in a residential fireplace, pine wood emitted significant quantities of guaiacol and related guaiacols together with resin acids, while oak and eucalyptus emitted large amounts of syringol and related syringols, which were not detected in the smoke of pine.
Emission measurements for three firewood types burned in a residential fireplace; it reports compounds, not odour.
How this was found: Emissions or air measured. What a material, product or place releases into the air was measured, usually without assessing odour. Source: primary study; material-emission work.
James J. Schauer, Michael J. Kleeman, Glen R. Cass & Bernd R. T. Simoneit
Environmental Science & Technology
DOI 10.1021/es001331eEach molecule is named by the claim shown after it. These molecules were detected or measured in the study. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Fireplace.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0080 — Fireplacesmellbook:smell:fireplacehttps://smellbook.com/smells/fireplaceSmellBook. (2026). Fireplace (revision 4, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:fireplace. https://smellbook.com/smells/fireplace@misc{smellbook_fireplace_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Fireplace},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:fireplace},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/fireplace}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-fireplace-r4 TI - Fireplace AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/fireplace N1 - SB-0080; smellbook:smell:fireplace; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/fireplace ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Fireplace differs from Campfire by indoor context, materials and domestic association.
Other entries whose editors linked to Fireplace:
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30; changed in the first of two dataset releases of 2026-10-05 (descriptors).
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗