If it was vented, it would not be so bad.
As for the fuel, I cannot see the fuel being cheap. It would probably be cheaper to heat by burning bog roll :-)
And thinking about that liquid-fueled era, I can think of a couple other examples.
I have a vague memory of taking bullrushes (plant with brown bulb on end, like a wick), and soaking that in something that wasn't petrol, and on one occasion, a bunch of people went up the street burning those as torches in a kind of procession.
The second item, was street lighting for construction. They used to have a spherical canister with a liquid fuel in it, and it had a knob on top with a couple holes, and these would be set alight to mark danger spots. These were later replaced by lantern batteries with a yellow flasher on top, and that lasted for a while until someone figured out the lantern batteries cost too much. And then we went to unlighted reflective cones as markers, and all the fun was gone out of marking construction.
Paul