Lighting a fire

We replaced our open fire with a stove when a piece of wood exploded and sent embers over the fire guard and into an upholstered chair 6 feet away. I was just walking out ot the room with a tea tray. I put it down and grabbed a cushion and smothered it, but it was quite frightening the speed (seconds) that a chance ember became flames 6 inches high.

When our 4 were teens, husband and I were working fulltime so got home late.
To earn their pocket money we asked them to take turns lighting the fire (coal) and cooking their tea after school.
The youngest, ?13, found we were out of newspapers and asked a neighbour. Who was quick to complain to us that it was not a suitable job for a 13yr old.
Nowadays she would be right.

warming a chimnet gets rid of the block of cold air that causes smoke to blow back into a room. You can do this by eg making the usual pyramid of kindling and putting a firelighter at the very top and lighting that first, befor lighting the kindling

I use an electric firelighter, I warm the flue with it first and only then point it at the fuel.

Another tip for a stove, to prevent smoke blow back when eg re-fuelling, to just open the door to the smallest crack first, to even out the pressure inside. It works

I remember my parents using the newspaper trick. Also remember my mother throwing sugar on the fire to get it going! It would cause a big whoosh - probably really dangerous, but that was the 1960s so no-one worried about health & safety then! When I first got married we had a Parkray and I could never get the damn thing to stay alight. Then DH would come home and there'd be a roaring blaze in no time. Very annoying!