Ceiling fan made loud pop then flame shot out

Hello, I bought a house built in 1986 and pretty sure the ceiling fan is original to house. It has worked fine for 3 years but last night it made a loud pop then flame shot out. Do they go bad and if I simply get a new ceiling fan will that solve the problem or should I worry about something else? The day before I came home to find that breaker had popped, it had never done that before. One of reasons I am so concerned is that I had a handyman come last week. He messed up my dryer by changing a roller and leaving the felt off. I also had him change out the heat/light/vent thing in bathroom which is very near the aforementioned ceiling fan. When he did he climbed in attic saying he needed to find the bracket and he ended up calling his friend who is supposedly an electrician. I overheard that guy tell him that he did not need to put the housing up there, he only needed to replace the guts. Since I had had the other bathroom done the year before I also tried to tell him that but he would not listen to me. Needless to say, this is another story completely but since those wires are surely so close together I did have to wonder if he did something accidentally. Thank you for any insight, I have been afraid to turn the fan back on.:(