SAN DIEGO -- Now that Christmas is over, fire officials are reminding residents not to use their fireplaces as fiery trash bins to get rid of holiday decorations.

"Using a fireplace to dispose of a Christmas tree can cause a large, uncontrollable fire," said a San Diego Fire-Rescue dispatcher. There are 16 tree drop-off locations in the city of San Diego as well as curbside pickup to certain areas, officials said.

San Diegans should also heed the warning about the disposal of wrapping paper from fire officials in Los Angeles. Burning holiday gift wrap and decorations in residential fireplaces is unsafe and creates the risk of destructive fires, according to the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

Trying to incinerate parts of a Christmas tree, scrap lumber, or vegetation also can spark "an excessively large fire that damages the fireplace and chimney or suddenly becomes uncontrollable," said City Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey. "Each year, people lose their homes to such fires, which often spread quickly," Humphrey said in a statement.

Of particular concern to firefighters is the practice of burning gift wrap and packaging material in fireplaces, Humphrey said. "Burning improper items creates embers that bypass missing or damaged spark arresters," Humphrey said. "These embers cause roof and attic fires that can destroy your home and everything in it."

On Saturday, a near disaster created by the very disposal issue cited by Humphrey was narrowly avoided on Balboa Island when a man used his garden hose to put out a burning roof, that was ignited by Christmas wrapping paper that had been wadded into a roaring fireplace, a newspaper Web site reported.

The fire broke out a house at 321 Amethyst Avenue, the Orange County Register reported on its Web site. The homeowner's son-in-law put out the fire with a garden hose before firefighters arrived, the newspaper reported.

Because wrapping paper is lightweight, burning embers can easily float onto a roof, and then ignite dried leaves sitting on top, Jennifer Schultz, spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Fire Department, told the newspaper. "We recommend not burning your wrapping paper, to just recycle," Schultz told www.ocregister.com.