The Daily Telegraph

Call to stop the sale of ‘fire risk’ plastic-backed fridges

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NEARLY half of fridges pose a major fire risk, a consumer watchdog has said. Which? has called for plastic-backed fridges to be “urgently” removed from sale after finding they pose a fire risk and could even hasten the spread of a blaze.

It said an industry-wide investigat­ion of more than 500 of the most popular refrigerat­ion appliances on the market found that backing material on 45 per cent of them was made of unsafe plastic which posed a fire risk.

The research also found that a number of models backed with plastic which manufactur­ers previously claimed was flame-retardant could speed up the spread of a fire. All plastic-backed fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers on the market pass existing safety standards, but Which? suggests the tests were “inadequate, not fit for purpose and do not come close to replicatin­g the source of a real house fire”.

The current British Standard requires refrigerat­ion appliances to pass a glow wire test to assess their fire resistance, involving putting a hot wire through a sample of the fridge or freezer backing material and seeing if it catches alight.

However, Which? said its own, “more stringent” tests found that no plastic backing sample was able to withstand a flame for 30 seconds, indicating that in the event of a fire it would not sufficient­ly prevent the flame from reaching the flammable insulation used in all refrigerat­ion appliances.

Similar testing of metal and aluminium laminate-backed refrigerat­ion products found that none caught alight after the 30-second test, with samples of metal and aluminium laminate-backing less than 1mm (0.039in) thick able to withstand an open flame for a full five minutes, the group said.

It has now labelled 250 models “don’t buys” and is recommendi­ng consumers do not buy plastic-backed models. Fires due to faults with refrigerat­ion appliances are rare, with UK statistics showing they are responsibl­e for just 8 per cent of domestic fires.

But Which? is calling on manufactur­ers to stop making refrigerat­ion products with any plastic backing and is urging retailers to immediatel­y stop selling them.

Peter Vicary-smith, the Which? chief executive, said: “If manufactur­ers and retailers fail to act and leave plastic-backed fridges, freezers or fridge-freezers on sale, the Office for Product Safety and Standards must step in and take action.”

A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesman said: “We are working with Which? and other parties to see whether standards can be made even more stringent.”

A spokesman for the Associatio­n of Manufactur­ers of Domestic Appliances said: “All appliances on the market have to be safe and tested to the rigorous safety standards prevailing at the time. These standards are continuous­ly revised.

“The aim of the latest revision in relation to refrigerat­ion, now being rolled out around the world, is to improve fire retardance in case a fire starts elsewhere in the home.

“Fires starting in a fridge are extremely rare.”

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