That’s not how you do it. She’s doing it wrong. We had a poker/rake that you stood in the middle on the front of the grate. It was a long steel poker with a rounded hook on the top and a flat bar at the base to use for raking out the ashes from under the fire hearth. The Rake top would be resting just above the fire opening so that the centre of the Yorkshire Post newspaper (broadsheet) was protected from being sucked in when the fire caught hold. The paper would assist air being drawn in at the bottom of the fire grate to getting the fire going. You had to keep a close eye of the paper, if it started to go brown you had to be quick to remove it before it caught fire. I can still remember the smell of the paper as it started scotching. Much more fun that turning up the thermostat.
BRIAN MACK 