In early 2006, I went to bed at about 3 in the morning after a long night at work. I woke up shortly before 9, and noticed a smokey smell that wasn't normally in my boat. It took about 20 minutes to fin the source - it turned out that the tiles behind my stove had been cemented straight to the ply, and that over the preceding 3 years the ply had slowly been burning away. Overnight, the hole had reached the edge of the front bulkhead and so it started to get more oxygen.

This picture shows the damage once the stove had been removed.

Fire damage behind stoveFire damage behind stove

I had to break through the tiles to put it out - with a bilge pump and bucket of water.

The damaged ply has now been replaced by 12mm Masterboard - (a fireproof board).

I have also fitted both a CO and a household smoke detector.