how i learned the hard way that your washing machine can set your house on fire... and why you should never leave it running when you go to bed

When Emma Palmer heard a beep from the smoke alarm downstairs, she thought her son Oliver
Then 19 years old home from Warwick University for vacation
Toast is burning.
But when she opened the door to the bedroom, she immediately realized that the problem was much more serious.
Smoke billowed on landing, and within seconds Emma began coughing and splspl creaking beyond control.
\"I realized Oliver was still in bed and I started yelling at him and waking him up.
I woke him up and then we rushed into my bedroom, dropped a towel at the door and called the fire brigade.
The smoke is too strong to go downstairs.
Emma\'s husband works outside, but she and Oliver are actually trapped upstairs due to the flames raging below.
Emma, 48, said it was all a bit vague and incredibly scary. She works in a private hospital and lives in Cheshire, Harford County.
\"I don\'t want to worry about anything --
But it\'s easy for us to die.
There is a surprising reason for Emma\'s terrible torture.
Not an unattended candle, or an iron left accidentally, but three of her --year-
Old tumble dryer.
That morning, the dryer, without warning, suddenly caught fire when it dried a pile of sheets.
Ironically, Emma says, my husband is an electrical engineer.
Therefore, we are always very careful when cleaning the lint on the filter.
When the fire started, I didn\'t think for a minute that it might be a dryer.
The police arrived before the fire brigade.
They knocked the front door down and came out of the smoke and took us away.
Then the fire brigade arrived and put out the fire. the fire was limited to the glove room, but caused a loss of 15,000 pounds.
\"We had to move into a hotel for two weeks and then move into the rented accommodation at the end of our work.
We haven\'t been home for seven months in total.
After investigation, it was found that the problem was attributed to electrical failure, which means that the machine did not cut off after completion, but became dangerous to overheat.
After some negotiation, Hotpoint accepted liability and paid more than £ 15,000 to the Palmer family.
Yet Palmer\'s nightmare is far from one-off.
Instead, which is the consumer watchdog\'s 2013 study of fire brigade records?
It shows that more than 3,700 fires per year are caused by faulty household appliances of different brands, with washing machines accounting for 600 and drum dryers accounting for 500.
Jill Patterson said that we will certainly receive more and more inquiries from people who have suffered damage due to washing machines and tumble dryers, a lawyer at London law firm Leigh Day who specializes in product liability cases.
In some cases, the fault occurs in the model that the manufacturer has been aware of and is trying to recall.
But in many other countries, there is no obvious problem with the machine before it catches fire.
Each family has these products, so the potential size of the problem is huge.
People don\'t think it will happen to them, but it does.
The most common fire is caused by overheating of electrical components or circuit board problems --
But sometimes, the cause has never been confirmed due to the serious damage of the product.
Jill Patterson says the way machines are produced is a key factor.
\"Since different parts are manufactured around the world and then assembled elsewhere, it may not be surprising that the machine occasionally fails.
It is clear that it depends on the manufacturer, but there are some names that appear again and again in these fires.
Patterson recommends a thorough study before you buy.
Don\'t just choose the cheapest model.
The quality of your machine can make a real difference.
\"There is no indication that any of the models mentioned here are made by rogue operators.
But when something so expensive comes into your home, of course you should believe in its safety.
Of course, the 36-year-old Lorraine Ward, who lives in Tamworth, Stafford, never thought that the new tumble dryer she bought at the end of 2012 would cause her any problems.
Lorin, a complete
Time to marry Brent and have two children, mother-nine-year-
Old Molly and two. year-old Lacey —
In response to the additional washing brought about by the expanding family, she purchased the New Beko product.
She said it all happened around 8 in the morning.
Lacey was a newborn and I spent most of my time with her, so I put on a bunch of baby clothes and went back to bed for a while and Brent put the two girls in the living room.
Suddenly, the electricity broke.
The fuse exploded.
Brent smelled smoke.
He rushed along the corridor of his rented bungalow to wake Lorraine up.
The house is old.
The kitchen door is thick, she said.
\"I opened it and it was terrible --
Like something in a movie.
There is a huge wall of smoke and a flame of 2ft.
\"We rushed to the road with the little guy.
In fact, there was a flame rolling out of the house.
\"Brent took our cats out desperate and went back to the front door until they finally ran out on their own.
Then he collapsed in tears.
It was the first time I saw him cry.
The fire brigade arrived, put out the fire and carried out smoke inhalation treatment on Brent.
But this is only the beginning of their suffering.
\"We forgot to update our family insurance,\" Lolin sighed . \".
After Lacey was born, I had to go back to the hospital with blood clots from my lungs and everything in the middle made us forget.
We have nothing.
The fire burned the laundry and kitchen of the bungalow, and many personal items were lost in the ward.
We had to move into a hotel.
Four of us share a single room, which is very difficult for a newborn and a sevenyear-old.
\"We ended up finding a rental property in Tamworth, but had to rebuild everything from scratch --
All the way to our knives and forks.
I really miss these personal things.
All the school pictures of my daughter are gone.
This is devastating.
\"The fighters tumble dryer is made by the Turkish brand Beko, which ranks fifth among all the new white items sold in the UK.
Due to the failure of this model, Beko released a product recall on November 2012, just weeks before the fire on January 2013.
But not seen in the ward.
This was seen in some newspapers, but again, just as I had Lacey, we didn\'t pay too much attention to the news, said Lorraine.
Beko initially paid about £ 20,000 to pay for the damaged item, and thereafter paid approximately £ 12,000 to the family to compensate for the pain caused.
\'I am still very angry with them,\' said Lorraine.
\"They let us fight every step of the second payment, and just three weeks ago we finally reached a settlement.
But the accompanying losses remain.
\"Then Molly became a girl,\" said Lorraine.
\"She is afraid of any sound that sounds like an alarm clock, or any new sound that she has never heard before.
She changed from a happy and confident girl to a girl who can\'t speak occasionally because of fear.
Lawyer Jill Patterson said: \"The psychological impact is huge for everyone.
The family is often moved away from their home to fight the insurance company.
The pressure is very great.
They often feel that they have lost their identity.
All their things, memories, and even passports could be destroyed.
So while a company may not think the incident is so serious because no one died, it will still destroy life.
Of course, for Emma Palmer, the psychological aftershocks of this incident are huge.
I\'m not physically hurt, she said, but the damage is huge.
I started losing sleep and I had terrible nightmares when I was sleeping.
\"I can smell the smoke a lot, have a paranoid attitude towards my electronics and need to check them all the time.
Judy Hansen may have something to do with Emma\'s pain.
Five years ago, she left her 11-year-old son, Jack, sleeping upstairs and suddenly came out to wash the car in the driveway.
When she returned to the House, the room was full of smoke.
\"I feel sick when I think about what might happen.
I bought a brand new Hoover washing machine from Curry three weeks ago.
When I went out to get something I put a bunch of stuff and when I came back there was smoke everywhere.
I think it must have caused sparks by friction.
There is no real flame, but I can\'t imagine what would happen if it was left behind.
Judy, a 57-year-old script editor from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, said: \"We brought the machine directly back to Curry and they gave me another brand of £ 50.
There seems to be a lack of compensation.
\"I am very careful now.
\"When I left home, I never thought about getting my washing machine on,\" Judy said . \".
Andy Trigg, a washing machine engineer, created the website of Whitehorse. co.
Britain has warned people to a certain extent that we often see equipment as a possible fire.
\"Because of the control of the software, the appliance usually becomes safer, and if overheating or over-filling is detected, the software can abort the cleaning cycle and shut down the machine,\" he said . \".
But the manufacturer still cannot prevent it from catching fire if it fails.
He recommends registering all new equipment with the manufacturer so they can contact you if there is a problem with the model you purchased.
\"A lot of people are too lazy to sign up for their device, but the first thing they will do if any manufacturer finds a security issue is to browse their database and contact everyone.
They may post something in the newspaper, but very successful.
The main thing is not to leave the appliance unattended during operation.
We can\'t sit in front of them and watch the wash cycle, but we can\'t leave the house completely or go to bed.
It\'s not worth the risk.
\"The danger posed by faulty or damaged washing machines is not just a fire.
At the end of last year, Susan McRoy and her younger son Aaron nearly avoided serious damage when the glass door of the Beko machine exploded in front of them, sending a dagger-
Pieces of glass flew in the air.
\"I took a shower in the kitchen and was in another room with Aaron, who was 20 months old at the time,\" Susan said . \".
\"I heard a funny click from the machine, so I went into the kitchen to investigate and Aaron followed me.
\"Actually, I bent down to see the door, and then looked up and began to walk away, and Aaron was still standing in front of the door.
It exploded a few seconds later and the glass was everywhere.
\"Aaron is only 1 feet metres from here, but surprisingly, there is nothing worse than the small wound on his face.
Could be worse.
But, of course, he was scared and completely hysterical.
The kitchen was full of debris.
To be honest, it\'s like a bomb exploded.
I think it\'s terrible.
Sometimes I wonder what happens if it explodes a few seconds ago and I\'m staring at it.
I\'m pretty sure I\'m blind.
Susan contacted Becko, who told her that the machine had been out of warranty for two years and apparently called the engineer for £ 75.
They don\'t seem to care what\'s going on, says Susan.
\"But it was impossible for me to give them more money at that time.
Susan then contacted the online retailer, where she purchased the machine directly, the appliance, which was more helpful and persuaded BECO to provide her with a new model.
The company still did not acknowledge any responsibility, but later offered another £ 300 to cover the cost of clothing in the machine torn by glass.
Andy Trigg has heard many similar cases.
This is an issue that covers multiple brands, he said.
The word \"explosion\" sounds sensational, but this is the word that most people use when describing the problem --
Some people say it\'s like a bomb.
\"When you think that a child might press his face on the washing machine, it really becomes terrible.
No parents can foresee that the thick glass doors of their washing machines will break, but it\'s better not to get the kids too close --just in case.
It seems that the manufacturer says the problem is caused by foreign obstacles --
Such as coins or buckles
Impact and weaken the door glass, the door glass will break under constant heating and cooling.
Another saying is that the overload of the washing machine is caused by people.
In general, you shouldn\'t squeeze the machine so full that the laundry room turns in a big lump.
Susan said: \"I just didn\'t expect such a thing to happen.
You take all the wise precautions against your child
For example, make sure the cleaning chemicals are locked and there are stair doors.
But you don\'t want your washing machine to explode on their faces.
\"Every product of Beko is designed and manufactured to meet the requirements of customers, with a focus on safety, reliability, quality and innovation,\" said Beko\'s spokepeople.
All of our products meet and exceed UK and European standards.
British manufacturers sell about 10 million pieces of white home appliances a year, but few people fail or have parts.
\"When these involve Beko-
We work with customers and consumers to solve these problems as much as possible.
A spokesman for Hotpoint said that as a leading manufacturer of white appliances, customer safety is our top priority.
We take any product safety issues very seriously, including those experienced by Mrs. Palmer, and his claim has been resolved.