[atticus finch]

Most of the important things have already been covered extensively, I did want to add one bit of experience.
The grate in your fireplace, for those who are contemplating using the fireplace as a heat source in an emergency. If you have one of the std grates made of roughly 3/8 dia square or round metal bar? It will not hold up under sustained use, sustained use being the fireplace being used for more than 4-5 hours at a stretch. The heat will soften the grate & it will collapse leaving you with folded up useless metal. This will take less than a week to happen if you're using the fireplace daily. That and those heat-oriented distortions they call welds will fail quickly.
I built a new grate for my fireplace (I use my fireplace for home heat in the winter and it does work......for the most part) and it's comprised of 1" bar for the main sections and legs & 1/2" bar for the actual grates. Even the 1/2 grates will burn through eventually, mine lasted only 4 months although I initially set the height too low.
2 & 3/4 " from the grate to the floor of the fireplace is about the optimum height although I'm still experimenting with it, although so far that looks to be around the right height.
Just something someone might find useful.

ADD EDIT: this was probably more appropriate for the be prepared thread, which I just found after posting this.
My apologies if this is on the wrong thread or off the topic.