My system is a older Holiday by Burnham. It workrd fine yesterday but a few hours ago I smelled something and went down to the basement and saw flames shooting to the top of the furnace. I shout it down for safety but I have no heat now?

Q: What happened. What do I do to fix it so that my family has heat. We are going to 19 degrees tonight.

Older? Take a look at the main burners to see if any have fallen off the manifold or are otherwise out of place relative to the others. Old burners have a funny way of rusting off their mounts...

Do not turn this back on until it can be inspected by a plumber or boiler tech. Get some electric heaters set up in the house to stay warm and to keep water and heating pipes from freezing. This could be a simple fix or a very serious problem. Don't take chances. It may be time to look into upgrading boiler(I know , not what you want to hear). But the advancements in boilers over the last couple decades is pretty impressive. If your system is the size of an old army tank, you would be surprised that the replacement would be small enough to fit in the trunk of a geo metro.

If you start looking for a new boiler stay away from Burnham. The cast iron in the newer boilers is having a problem. Leaks abound and it usually strikes between 3 and 5 years of age to show up. Just thought I would mention that fact.

Weil Mclain makes a good boiler. This would be my suggestion.

I agree that you should not operate this system until you can get it checked. If you don't have access to electric heaters you can boil a large pot of water and this should help keep out the chill. I got by for 2 days like that a few winters ago lol.