As something of a coincidence, I had the only genuine engine fire of my long career on take-off from runway 22 at Salalah. The date was 14.04.67 and we had arrived at Salalah from Muharraq via Sharjah with 50-odd troops in Argosy XN820. We were then due to fly back to base at Khormaksar empty.
As we taxied out, Colin called on the radio and said that he had found an Army major who needed to get back to Aden. I arranged for the major to be sent out in a Land Rover and for him to board through the crew nose hatch which allowed us to keep the engines running.
My trusty co-pilot (Brian S) was driving, John LeJ was the flight engineer and DougM (of this parish) was the navigator. At about 60 knots on take-off, John announced a massive torque drop on No.1 so I told Brian to abort. At the same time the fire bell went and John announced that we now had a fire in No.1 so I told him to carry out the engine fire drill which he did in grand style. The aircraft started to fill with smoke so I ordered an evacuation.
I was about to exit through the port para door when I heard the rustle of a newspaper. The Army major was sat there right at the back reading an air mail copy of the Times completely oblivious to everything that was going on around him. I invited him to join me.
The fire had gone out immediately after John had shut the fuel off. Next I had to persuade the firemen not to cover the aeroplane in foam unless they could see actual flames.
The bottom combustion chamber had failed at a weld-joint and that particular can had a fuel drain running through it. Despite the fact that the fire had been dealt with in double-quick time, it had still managed to torch a hole through the double layer cowling.
The next problem came when John discovered that the 2nd Shot fire extinguisher for No.1 engine had actually gone into No.2 engine. This should have been impossible but it transpired that ours was the only unmodified fire bottle in the entire fleet of 56 aircraft!
I would have to say that if can't have your engine fire when parked on the ramp then 60 knots on take-off is a pretty good substitute! Salalah looked after us magnificently that night and we left for Aden the following evening fully repaired.