HUNG OUT TO DRY BY WHIRLPOOL
Fury of residents left homeless by tumble dryer fire as firm snubs payout plea
WHIRLPOOL has been accused of delaying a payout fight with families left homeless after a fire caused by one of its dodgy dryers. And it refused to pay into a crisis fund to help the West London residents. One, Chantal Froelich, said: “They wouldn’t give us anything.”
LEFT with only the clothes on their backs, homeless blaze victims turned to the firm whose tumble dryer sparked the fire for aid.
But multi-million pound electrical giant Whirlpool snubbed the pleas and refused to pay a penny towards a crisis fund set up to help lessen the pain.
And the company has now been accused of wilfully delaying the victims’ legal claim for compensation.
Facilities manager Chantal Froelich, 36, was one of the 50 residents left without a home after the inferno last August. She said: “Whirlpool have a lot to answer for. We were walking around in flip-flops but they wouldn’t give us anything for new clothes.
“It’s clear it was their dryer, and it’s clear there was a fault with it as they have admitted that.
“This has disrupted a lot of lives. What are they waiting for? We felt completely lost without our home and belongings. We’ve just been passed from pillar to post and Whirlpool are not taking any responsibility. We had to buy all new clothes. We’ve all been left out of pocket.”
The firm has refused to accept responsibility for the blaze, even though fire chiefs found one of its Indesit dryers was to blame.
After waiting months victims finally got a response to their claim for compensation – but only one that delays the process even further. Now, residents face a two-year battle for payouts.
Tom Jervis of Leigh Day Solicitors said: “Whirlpool are just stalling. We can push them as hard as we can but they are getting us stuck in the legal process.
“They’ve said it’s going to take a few more months.
“We’ve also asked them for an emergency payment because people who lost everything aren’t in a position to wait, but they have flatly refused.”
The victims spent up to six months in emergency accommodation before some, including Chantal, were let back into their flats at the block in Shepherd’s Bush, West London. But at least eight are still homeless.
Lawyers preparing a group litigation against Whirlpool issued it with a Letter of Claim on December 14. It alleges the dryer which started the fire was defective and the safety of the product was less than would be expected.
The firm took the maximum three months to acknowledge the claim.
The fund they refused to pay into would have covered the cost of replacement clothes and other essentials as well as accommodation fees. In 2015, Whirlpool pulled in revenue of £17billion, paying its American chief executive a £10.5million salary package. The Shepherd’s Bush blaze started on the eighth floor of the block.
A London Fire Brigade probe found “all the evidence in the flat clearly indicated the fire had started in the tumble dryer”. The device was due to have been seen by an engineer before the fire. No one was hurt in the inferno. LFB joined demands for Whirlpool to change its advice to “save lives”. It eventually did in a U-turn announced on Wednesday.
A Whirlpool spokesman said: “This incident is subject to litigation. It would be inappropriate for us to comment.”
A house fire in Bache, Chester, yesterday was believed to have been caused by a faulty tumble dryer. No one was hurt in the blaze.
This has disrupted a lot of lives. What are they waiting for? CHANTAL FROELICH RESIDENT LEFT HOMELESS
We demand the US giant donate immediately to the emergency fund after the London Fire Brigade blamed a tower-block blaze on one of the company’s faulty Indesit appliances.
Mercifully nobody was killed or seriously injured but Whirlpool, forced last week to advise customers to unplug machines until they can be made safe, must do the right thing.
Pay up or be damned.