Testing the smoke detectors

Last night when G was taking a nap I decided to light our wood stove in the basement.  First I placed paper, then small wood pieces, then larger.  It started burning fine but the smoke came out into the room instead of going up the chimney. I worked frantically for a couple minutes, but to no avail.  Soon there was smoke in the room, in the whole basement and going upstairs.  The smoke detectors were screeching and I was running upstairs shouting, "I need help". Gerry rushed down and kept adding paper to the fire to get the draft to go up the chimney instead of the room.  It took several minutes to get it reversed. Buy now our house was filled with smoke.  He did get it reversed (smoke going up the chimney instead of into the house) and we opened windows and aired out the house.  This morning I cannot smell any smoke, thankfully.

Then I asked my engineer/scientist husband what had happened.  Aside: this is always dangerous because a lengthy explanation and perhaps drawings will follow.  He said we had made our house too air tight.  There was no supply of air coming into the house to replace the air that was to go up the chimney and the heat was not intense enough to force it up. He is now thinking about a plan to put in an air vent of some kind that we can open when we burn the stove.  All I can say is  that I learned a lesson and am glad I did not do it when we had a house full of guests.  Of course if I had, that would have been a memorable night for them.