I set the timing myself,been doing this for 35 years but this has me buffaloed. The only way to get it to crank is to leave the bolt out of the distributor and advance the distributor, and it runs poorly then,with popping through the throttle upon acceleration.

Is none of the harness at the distributor burned?
Tell me more about the small fire: how did it start and what was burning, etc?

**EDIT** and please, stay on one post. Put your follow-up info on the same post so everybody can keep track. Thanks, Rich

It sounds pretty obvious to me the timing belt has slipped a tooth or two.
The dist should be at #1 when the timing mark is TDC.

Every think is in time

Bump