All of us had to use the fireplace.
Occasionally things go wrong that aren’t under your control.
Other times things go wrong when you are trying to take control, plus never should have tried.
I have done this several times. My latest blunder was when I tried to repair the furnace. My wife was freezing, my son was complaining, plus they were annoyed that the Heating plus A/C specialist was there yet. It had only been an hour since I called for furnace service. They said it would take about two hours, so I couldn’t figure out why they were annoyed. I promised my wife that if they weren’t there within two hours, I was going to see if I couldn’t repair the furnace. In the meantime, I headed out to the shed to bring up a couple wheelbarrow full of wood. I was going to get the fireplace laboring to keep us warm. I laid the kindling plus the logs on the hearth plus I lit the paper underneath. I could see the flame plus then I felt the smoke. I hadn’t changed the flue to let the smoke out. I must have put the damper in every position possible, although I still had smoke coming into the house. Now we had the fans going on a freezing night, plus the air vents in both bathrooms, hoping to pull the smoke out of the house. I never did get to work on the furnace, since I was busy trying to not suffocate us while keeping us overheated with the fireplace. When the Heating plus A/C tech finally arrived, I had the fireplace laboring correctly plus my wife plus son weren’t complaining any longer.