Might as well try that, since I don't stuff it with newspaper anyway. I did a 2lb meatloaf tonight and the juice/sauce was up to about the halfway point in the pan. So I suppose the coals had a lot of liquid to work through for the hour it was on until dead.
And yet, I reused the same coals again to re-light, so they hadn't been consumed and I doubt snuffed out. I probably only lit a few, and the rest just never caught on even when sitting in the hot kettle.
Somebody needs to invent a twin-fuel chimney somehow, lit from both ends.