The RAF Cranwell quarters, that were part of the civvy estate in the village, had the back boilers and when we finally got through the snow from RAF Wyton late afternoon and as it was cold I got started on getting fire started, opened the vent and lit paper with kindling and coal as one does, and closed the door nothing seemed to happen for approximately an hour despite trying all the tricks I knew from previous similar fires, as it was really cold we packed the kids in the car and went to visit family for warmth and food.
On our return the house was glowing as if we had left lights on and sparks were coming out of the chimney, opened the door and it was extremely hot and pipes banging, opened taps to stop the noise, closed the fire damp and called the fire brigade, they were good and said I was lucky as the chimney had been cleaned otherwise we might have had a bigger issue and different outcome, families flight were pretty good about the cracks in the wall in the living room and stair well, never left a fire unattended again.