Once we were comfortable in our new home and about half of the renovations had been done we decided to go on holiday for a couple of weeks. We had two choices with the aga; we could turn it down to tick over which basically meant that it would remain alight but at no where near cooking temperature, or we could turn it off completely. We decided to turn it off. This, we think, was the right choice but did mean that we would have to go through the re-lighting procedure for our oil fired model once we got back. No problem, you might think, and indeed for anyone with the ability to read and take note of instructions this would have been the case; not for us though.....
When we got back from holiday turning the aga back on was high on the list of priorities. It fell to the man of the house to do this (bzzzzt, mistake). Now, for one reason or another the first attempt to light the burner failed. It went out after about an hour or so, perhaps because we turned the oil pump to full too early. This happened to us before and is no big deal as all you need to do is to wait for the burner to cool down and start again. What happens if you don't wait for the burner to cool down? I'll tell you.
Once the wick in the burner is lit and the burner gets up to the necessary temperature it's hot enough to vapourise the oil. This is the point when the oil pump should be turned up to its normal running setting. I tried to re-light the wick when the burner was still hot enough to vaporise any oil that it received. My hand, with a lit match was inside the aga and my head was at a low enough level so that I could see what I was doing. As the naked flame reached the burner access flap the oil vapour caught light and a ball of flame came shooting out, engulfing my hand and, for a brief moment, my face. I don't think that I've ever moved so fast. Luckily the only injuries were to my hair and my pride but it just goes to show that you should always follow the relighting instructions fully.