Thanks for some great replies. Yes, it was a 757-200, sorry.
So it looks like it wasn't a near death experience then. Actually, the subsequent 9 hours of disorganisation and rebooking was far more stressful.
I said fire because there were flames coming out of the back of the engine. Could have been a compressor stall though. There was repeated loud banging - I thought it was a part rattling around the inside of the engine cowling. The plane never seemed to fly less than perfectly though.
I'm getting a bit fed up with the reliability of my flights though. I'm averaging a one day delay every four flights so far this year.
Thanks