A combustion apparatus is provided having a pre-combustion chamber and a combustion chamber. The pre-combustion chamber houses a preheating combustion for preheating and at least partially vaporizing fuel supplied to the pre-combustion chamber. The preheating combustion is controlled so that only a portion of the fuel supplied to the pre-combustion chamber is burned. The combustion apparatus further include a primary combustion oxidizer supply located downstream of said preheating combustion. The primary combustion oxidizer supply supplies an amount of oxidizer to allow the fuel not burned by the preheating combustion to burn.