Safety question (get ready for a few of these)

Not surprisingly, after last Friday, I'm a little focussed on safety issues in our house. Hope's burned fingers have lit a fire under me (that's a bad choice of words) to search out something to block off our gas fireplace doors. We use the fireplace to heat our basement, which is also the playroom, in the winter. The company, Kidco, sells a hearth gate for $300 here in Canada plus tax. It is much less at Target but they don't ship to Canada and it is kind of big so asking Beth to bring it up for me at Christmas isn't practical. I might be able to get my dad to bring it back with him after his November visit, but I'm looking for other options (that are less than $300). So, does anyone out there have any ideas to safely block off a gas fireplace or has anyone heard of another gate that is useful for this? I've searched the internet and have only found the Kidco gate.

Sorry for the outright boring-ness of this post but I'm a little preoccupied with this at the moment. And not spending $300. Although I'll do it if I can't find anything else.