North East family who survived house fire warn about charging tablets
North East teenager saved his family's lives after raising the alarm when TABLET left on charge set fire to the house.
A North East family who survived a house fire are now warning others to never leave devices on charge.
Elizabeth Doyle-Davies escaped the blaze with her four children when her 13-year-old son Harley woke up to use the toilet, smelt smoke and discovered that his mam’s bed had set alight while she was sleeping in it.
It happened just over a week ago and the family have been told they can’t return to the wreck for around two months.
Firefighters believe it was caused by the charger overheating, after the Amazon Kindle has been left plugged in overnight.
Elizabeth says it has devastated her family, her four-year-old daughter Frankie has had nightmares since and is too scared to return to the scene. She said:
“You watch your life getting chucked into a skip because you can’t get anything back. Yes, we’re insured but insured doesn’t bring back memories, it doesn’t make a four-year-old child go back into her house again after she’s so terrified of going in.
“If Harley hadn’t of woken up to go to the toilet then we wouldn’t have got out because it would have been too much by the time we realised. I’ve never been so frightened in all my life. It was horrible.
“He let out such a scream, opened the door but as soon as he opened the door the air hit and the whole bed went up in flames. If we hadn’t of got out when we did, then we wouldn’t have had an escape route and we’d have been looking at five funerals.”
Dave Turton, Head of Community Safety at Cleveland Fire Brigade, said:
“These charging units can generate quite a bit of heat. These can often overheat and burst into flames. We wouldn’t recommend anyone would leave them charging them overnight or leave them charging unattended for any extended period of time.
“Don’t leave them charging overnight. Charge them at a time when you are there and can switch them off if you’re worried about overheating. Make sure that you’ve got some working smoking alarms in there so that if you do have a fire it’s picked up very quickly and will allow you to escape”
For more help and advice visit: