Fire danger from faulty white goods
THE LONDON Fire Brigade (LFB) last week called on the
Government to take urgent action regarding the dangers from electrical
household goods such as refrigerators and washing machines.
The LFB was particularly critical of the
Government’s failure to implement any of its recommendations a year after a
faulty Indesit tumble drier caused a serious fire in a tower block in
Shepherd’s Bush, which was attended by 20 fire engines and 110 firefighters.
No one was killed in this incident but
more than 100 families had to be evacuated.
A faulty Hotpoint fridge-freezer is
thought to have been the original source of the fire on 14th June
this year in Grenfell towers, which cost at least 88 lives, though the inquiry
into that fire has yet to begin and the rapid spread of that fire across the
insulation cladding tiles on the outside of that building will also feature in
that inquiry.
The LFB is demanding a Government-backed
single register for all product recalls in Britain to be readily accessible to
consumers online and better regulation of second-hand appliances.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, along
with other campaigners, has added his name to the demand sent by the LFB to
Theresa May to demand action to stop further fires.
Although nobody was killed in the
Shepherd’s Bush blaze, more than 100 families were evacuated, with 26 being
found temporary accommodation in hotels owing to the extent of the damage.
The brigade says that nearly one fire per
day in London involves white goods. Between 2010 and 2016 there have been nine
fatalities and 298 injuries as a result of fires involving white goods in
London.
The figures do not include those who died
in the Grenfell fire because the causes of these fatalities are subject to an
inquest.
Hotpoint urged owners of its
fridge-freezers to check their model numbers for safety reasons immediately
after the fire.
Last week an inquest resumed into a fatal
fire in north Wales, which may have started in or around a tumble dryer.
Bernard Hender, 19, and Doug McTavish, 39, died after a blaze at a flat in
Llanrwst in October 2014. At an earlier hearing, experts disagreed over what
caused the blaze.
The LFB has made a series of urgent calls
for action to make white goods safer as part of its Total Recalls campaign,
which calls for a single, publicly accessible register of product recalls and
better publicity to reduce consumer confusion.
Dany Cotton, the LFB commissioner, said:
“How many more devastating white goods fires do there have to be before the
Government makes it easier for consumers to check whether their fridges and
freezers are on the recall list?
“Worse still, the second-hand market is
under-regulated and there is little to stop people buying kitchen appliances which
pose a serious fire risk.”
The LFB is also calling on manufacturers
to use less flammable materials in machines. Cotton said: “All new
refrigeration and freezing appliances should have a non-combustible backing as
standard. Many models still use a flammable plastic backing, which offers very
little protection against the foam inside catching alight if a fire starts.”
The coroner at the inquest into the death
of Santosh Benjamin Muthiah, who died after saving his wife and two children
from a fire that was caused by a faulty Beko fridge-freezer, recommended a
series of measures to improve product recalls in 2014.
The Government announced a review of the
UK product recall system in November that same year. A working group published
its recommendations this year and the Government response is due in the autumn.
The Government did set up a product Recall
website to inform the public which goods are safe to use at home, but it is an
interim measure that gives links to significant sources of information on product
recalls and corrective action but it does not deliver the information itself.
The fault in the Indesit tumble dryer
model that had caused the Shepherd’s Bush fire emerged before the incident,
with numerous but less severe fires reported. The parent company Whirlpool had
been replacing or repairing an estimated 3.8-million potentially faulty dryers
across Britain after identifying a fire risk safety defect in November 2015,
caused when excess fluff touches the heating element.
It did not issue a product recall, telling
customers that they could continue to use their tumble dryer whilst waiting for
the modification, provided it was not left unattended. That advice was changed
in February after pressure from consumer groups, with owners advised to unplug the
appliances and stop using them until they were repaired.
