New to Bandsaw

I have a 9" Craftsman band saw that has a 1/3 hp motor. I got it from my brother in law who said he never could get it to work quite right. I used it today and had some trouble with the blade popping off the wheels. I did get a lot of burning on the cuts whether I was cutting straight (or trying to) or making a curve. I did notice that there were sparks in the kerf. I was cutting red oak.
Is this sparking unusual? I expect that the burning on the cut is because the blade is shot. Do you agree?
I did some adjusting and reduced the incidence of blade popping off; but did not eliminate it. Could pushing a dull blade lead to pop offs?