Firm’s Screens Come in Glass of Many Colors

Fire doesn’t have to be a traditional yellowish-orange. It can be red, white, even blue or Kelly green.

That’s the sales pitch for Fire Colors, a line of tempered glass fire screens designed and distributed by Paul Dalton of Thousand Oaks and his brother, Emmett Dalton of Westlake.

The siblings have spent several thousand dollars to copyright and patent their 36- by 56-inch screens and are ready to test the market.

“I’m in the photography business, and we use filters to enhance contrast,” said Paul Dalton, 36. “So I came up with the idea of coloring your fire.”

The three-panel screens, manufactured by Dagan Industriescq of Sylmar, come in green, blue, orange, purple and red and can be custom designed in other colors.

“We have a gas fireplace at home with a blue screen up now. We’ll go to a peacock green for Christmas and for fall we have amber,” Dalton said. “I present the screens either to be used seasonally or as a visual art decoration for interior design.”

Dalton said he is shopping the screens to local fireplace furnishings stores but the response has been tentative.

“Being it is a new concept to have a colored fire,” he said, “most people have to see it to believe it.”

Dalton said the standard screens will retail for about $199, with the custom screens slightly more expensive.