I read an article by finance reporter Kevin Peachey regarding whether or not our home appliances are safe. In particular he mentioned a particular brand of tumble drier, which was in danger of catching light and causing a house fire. One of the 5.3 million driers had caused a huge tower block fire which left families homeless and 120 firefighters to bring under control. The fire had been caused by excess fluff in the drier catching on the heating element.
The Fire Service has urged owners of the driers to unplug them and stop using them, and argue that they are unwittingly playing Russian Roulette.
I can only agree with this and add my own sad story. My son, daughter-in-law and children were fortunately out of the house when their dishwasher caught fire. It had been left switched on at the wall, but had not been in use at the time. We received a phone call about 5 years ago from our distraught daughter-in-law to say that their whole house was full of thick, black smoke. We rushed over there to find that the fire brigade had put out the fire, but then had deemed the house uninhabitable. Our son and his wife had each other and their children but had lost everything else, even sentimental photos and keepsakes from the children. All they had left were the clothes they wore.
Thank goodness for house insurance. The insurance company paid up without a murmur, and within a couple of days my son and his family had been re-settled in a temporary furnished house not too far away while their own was repaired. The old plaster had to be taken off all the walls back to the brick, and every room had to be re-plastered. They were given money by the insurers to buy new clothes, furniture and necessities, but it was about 6 months before they could move back again.
These days we as a family are all very mindful to switch off appliances which are not in use, especially dishwashers and driers.
franklparker said:
I first saw the story about tumble driers that catch fire in February. The makers have/had a web page on which you could enter your drier model and serial number to see if your machine was one with a potential fault. I did and ours was. They said they’d be in touch about arranging a visit to install a modification. Meanwhile we were advised to always keep the filter clean (we do!) and never leave it running unattended (we would sometimes use it at night on cheap rate electricity – not any more!).
In the summer I had another e-mail to let me know the Engineer’s visit was scheduled for November. They went on to add that they were willing to contribute to the cost of a new drier should we decide to go that route. Our drier is 10 years old. The new machines were on offer at about 1/3 the normal retail price and included delivery and removal of the old machine. So we now have a shiny new tumble drier that should be safer in operation than was the old one.
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Stevie Turner said:
Let’s hope! Thanks for your comment, Frank.
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D. Wallace Peach said:
Great advice, Stevie. My husband is always paranoid about turning things off. I promise not to roll my eyes at him ever again 🙂
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thejuicenut said:
Ditto, that’s a very scary tale, I’m so relieved they were all unscathed.
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes they were lucky to have all been out at the time.
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