Couple’s dishwasher ‘burst into flames’ narrowly avoiding house fire
If you're anything like me, then you'll know all about the anxiety of accidentally leaving a candle out, forgetting to turn the hob off, leaving your hair straighteners on and just about anything else that can set your entire home on fire.
Well, one couple had the shock of a lifetime after their dishwasher 'burst into flames', narrowly avoiding a house fire.
The pair, who hail from St Asaph in Denbighshire, have said it's simply 'pure luck' that the fire was thankfully spotted in time before it spread.
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The whole ordeal took place last month (2 December), when Alyn London-Smith was chilling at home.
He was just about to leave the house to pick up his wife, Ellen, from her Crimbo do when he made the shocking discovery.
Alyn started to smell smoke and, upon further investigation, he knew something 'wasn't right'.
"I suddenly thought to myself that something wasn't right," he told the BBC.
The man continued: "When I got to the kitchen all I could see was a smoky haze which seemed to be coming from the dishwasher. I opened the door and saw flames coming out of the bottom of the machine."
Yikes.
He added that it was 'pure luck' that he hadn't gone to collect Ellen already, adding: "20 minutes later and the house would have been empty."
Thinking fast, Alyn turned the appliance off and tried to put out the fire with water from the sink.
Recalling the stressful moment, he went on: "Then I remembered that a friend had given me an old fire extinguisher a few years ago which was still in a shed in the garden.
"I aimed it at the hole where the flames were coming through and it worked."
While the handy fire extinguisher successfully put out the fire, the couple's kitchen was left absolutely covered in soot and extinguisher powder with Ellen claiming it took them 'the rest of the weekend' working 'flat out' to clean the whole thing up.
Not exactly what you want to be doing on your day off but I'd take that over a totally scorched house any day.
Talking about the dishwasher, Ellen explained: "We bought the dishwasher, a Kenwood KID45S17, from Currys in December 2019 - almost exactly four years to the day it caught fire.
"They sent an engineer to look at it who confirmed that it couldn't be repaired and he seemed to think there'd been a wiring fault.
"Currys have also asked to have the fire-damaged dishwasher back so they can do further checks on it to see what could have gone wrong."
Currys has since apologised and initially offered Alyn and Ellen £79.86 in compensation as the dishwasher was out of warranty.
However, after being approached by BBC Wales, they agreed to cover the cost of a brand-new one.
A Currys spokesperson said: "We were extremely shocked to hear about Mr and Mrs London-Smith's case and treat situations like these with the upmost seriousness.
"Our product safety experts have not discovered any inherent issues with this model of dishwasher which should cause other owners concern.
"Nonetheless, we will continue to monitor this product line very closely and will, on this occasion, be offering a full refund to our customers - we are very sorry for the distress this has caused."
Rhiannon Ingle