Coroner links Hotpoint dryer to fatal flat fire
A FAULTY Hotpoint tumble dryer was the probable cause of a fire that killed two people as they slept, a coroner ruled yesterday.
The finding – believed to be the first time a Whirlpool appliance has been linked to a death in court – comes only months after the company warned almost three million families not to use their machines due to safety concerns.
Last night there were demands for a total recall of the dryer after experts blamed it for a blaze that killed restaurant manager Doug McTavish, 39, and chef Bernard Hender, 19, at their flat. Whirlpool was also criticised by the coroner for its response to 40 previous dryer fires since 2009.
Landlord Garry Lloyd Jones, 50, who survived the blaze, told the inquest the dryer had been switched off when he went to bed, but he woke to find ‘flames coming out of it’.
Firefighters saw flames 18 inches high when they arrived at the flat in Llanrwst, North Wales, in October 2014 as the machine dried towels from the restaurant where the men worked. An independent expert appointed by insurers pinpointed ‘untoward electrical activity’ in the door switch as the probable cause. Whirlpool, which owns Hotpoint, Indiset and Creda, is in the process of replacing or repairing an estimated four million potentially faulty machines across the UK after identifying the safety issue in November 2015. In Febru- ary the company made a U-turn on previous advice saying the dryers were safe to use as long as they were not left unattended.
Whirlpool had flown in experts from America to contest the claims at Ruthin County Hall, Denbighshire, and said the fire could have been started in the flat’s light switch or in an iron.
But assistant coroner David Lewis ruled yesterday after a fiveday inquest that ‘on the balance of probabilities’, the door switch of the dryer was the cause. Mr Lewis also rejected the firm’s theory that the fire could have started by spontaneous combustion in the towels after the drying cycle had finished.
Giving a narrative verdict, he said he found Whirlpool’s experts ‘to be less than compelling’.
Mr Lewis said he was considering whether to make a ‘prevention of further deaths’ warning and gave Whirlpool two weeks to make submissions to him.
Alex Neill, managing director of home products and services at Which? said: ‘In the face of the tragic deaths of these two men, Whirlpool can no longer continue to ignore its responsibility for the safety of its customers and must now conduct a full product recall of the potentially lethal tumble dryers in people’s homes across the country.’
A Hotpoint fridge freezer was identified as the source of the devastating Grenfell Tower fire that killed 80 in June.
A Whirlpool spokesman said last night: ‘We extend our profound condolences to the families and friends of Bernard Hender and Douglas McTavish.
‘Safety is always our number one priority. We treat all incidents extremely seriously and we have a robust process that continuously reviews the safety of all our products. We will carefully review and consider the coroner’s findings.’
‘Must be a full product recall’