Consider your fireplace cleaning professional to be more than your average chimney sweep. These individuals are trained with fire prevention techniques. If you are a home owner, you can not have enough fire prevention information to use. Therefore, make sure you consider your chimney sweep your prevention specialist.
When you call on a fireplace cleaning professional you should know that there is not a regulation department or anyone really looking after what they are doing for you. They are not regulated and in most states of the US they are not licensed professionals either. For this reason, you should consider their credentials closely.