Yuval Noah Harari points out that, around 300 thousand years ago, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, and ancestors of Homo sapiens already used fire daily. According to the author of the international bestseller “Sapiens,” fire created the first significant gap between man and other animals. "By domesticating fire, humans gained control of an obedient and potentially limitless force." Some scholars even believe that there is a direct relationship between the advent of the habit of cooking food (possibly due to the domestication of fire) and the shortening of the intestinal tract and growth of the human brain, which allowed human beings to develop and create everything we now have.
Fire has been our Netflix for a long time, bringing a dynamic array of colors, sounds, smells, and warmth, and being a collective space for us to socialize and prosper. By handling fire, we are dealing with something that is alive and which, out of control, can be catastrophic. Residential fireplaces allow contact, but maintain security by taking the smoke away. The fireplace not only brings light, but also warms bodies and even cooks food.
