Page 43 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

(Heating boiler almost the same as the one we used....except this one is new in 2020!
They are now called biomass burners/heating boilers and much encouraged!!)

the garage doors and grabbed three bales of straw, stuffed them into the boiler and
opened all the air intakes. Nothing unusual in that, or so I thought, but the wind was from
the east. I watched the thick yellow smoke emerging from the chimney and carrying across
the main road that passed directly in front of Ivy House.
I remember thinking that it was a good job Betty and Les across the road would not be up
for an hour or so and I hope they slept with their bedroom window closed, as the smoke
began to carry over towards the whole village.
Back in my ‘boiler room’ things were warming up nicely. I could soon change to wood fuel
as the flames began to build. Outside things had changed a little, damp air had come with
the pre dawn and brought my smoke closer to the ground.
All this I was not aware of until there was a huge screeching of tyres outside on the road,
pushing my head out of the door I could only see smoke and more smoke, it was
everywhere. Then two figures in blue uniforms appeared out of the murk, attracted by the
light from my ‘boiler room’ they had sourced the root of the problem encountered on the
road.
I was told in no uncertain terms to stop the smoke instantly as there could be a serious
incident as a result. They had been innocently patrolling along the long straight road in the
direction of Boston and then suddenly, without any warning become engulfed in a yellow
acrid fog, so dense they could see nothing beyond their patrol car until a waft or air had
exposed my boiler room light!
They inspected the boiler and I explained about the straw and the quick heat. The result
was not without some amusement but serious ‘official’ recommendations were to only do it
when the wind was from the West!

A FINAL STRAW INCIDENT
One other incident resulted from that ‘straw’ experiment, it happened later in the year, in
fact close to New Year, there had been a severe fall of snow, substantial in fact. The
remaining straw trailer was parked adjacent to the boiler room but against the

43