Revealed: Tumble dryer firm made mother sign gag order after fire in machine they fixed

Whirlpool paid compensation... but stopped her speaking out

‘Someone is going to get killed’ ‘Nothing matters more than safety’

A MAJOR electrical manufacturer used a gagging order to stop a woman speaking out about a fire in a supposedly safe tumble dryer.

Whirlpool, whose brands include Hotpoint, last night faced demands to reveal how many victims it has paid to keep silent about blazes in machines it had apparently ‘fixed’.

It paid a five-figure sum to gag a mother forced to flee with two young children as a blaze engulfed her home after her drier had been modified, the Mail has learned.

Under the legal deal – signed in the middle of a Government inquiry into the potentially lethal dryers – the woman promised not to discuss how her appliance was the cause of the terrifying fire.

Campaigners and MPs said the use of ‘ non- disclosure agreements’ ( NDAs) marked a ‘deeply disturbing’ development for the firm. They have accused Whirlpool of ‘delaying and frustrating’ attempts to make it accept liability for the machines.

More than five million dryers under the company’s Hotpoint, Creda and Indesit brands had a design fault that has caused at least 750 household fires since 2004.

Whirlpool began a huge drive to modify them four years ago – but at least half a million that have not been seen are thought to be still in use. It claims there have been no reported incidents where the fix has failed, and a Government review found modified appliances had a ‘low’ fire risk.

But consumer groups said the inquiry was ‘fundamentally flawed’ as it failed to speak to at least 35 people whose ‘fixed’ machines caught fire or produced smoke or a burning smell. Hundreds of families, some with no insurance, have lost possessions or been driven out of their homes by blazes caused by Whirlpool dryers. They start when fluff from the cycle comes into contact with the heating element.

The US firm first issued a safety alert in 2015 and later launched a nationwide programme to modify millions of the at-risk machines. Despite this, half a million defective machines remain in homes.

Now it has emerged that a woman whose dryer burst into flames and engulfed her home almost two years after it was modified was paid a five-figure sum to settle her claim against Whirlpool. It included a nondisclosure agreement not to speak about the fire to anyone, including to broadcasters and on social media.

The NDA was signed with a loss adjustor, a third party acting on behalf of Whirlpool to deal with her compensation claim.

Whirlpool said it did not use stand alone NDAs for resolving compensation claims but documents sometimes used ‘common confidentiality provisions’.

The NDA was signed earlier this year, during an inquiry into concerns around the modified dryers by the Office for Product Safety and Standards. The inquiry concluded this month that there is a ‘low risk of harm or injury from lint fires in modified machines’.

Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chairman of the business, energy and industrial strategy committee, said: ‘Attempts to silence customers with genuine complaints sound more like the cynical tactics of PR management than a commitment to protecting customers. We have written to Whirlpool... and we expect them to set the record straight.’

Labour MP Andy Slaughter added: ‘If [Whirlpool] are now paying customers to keep silent about faulty products that’s a very worrying sign.’

David Chaplin, Which? head of campaigns, said: ‘Any evidence that Whirlpool may have tried to silence the real stories of tumble dryer fire victims during a Government inquiry is deeply disturbing and must be urgently investigated.’ Whirlpool said as recently as February that ‘ there have been no reported incidents where the modification has proven ineffective’.

But a Whirlpool engineer’s report into a fire in a modified dryer in October said its cause was ‘lint build-ups on the heater element and burn signs on the rear panel’ – the exact issue the modification was meant to stop. Which?’s submission to the Government’s inquiry revealed 35 similar cases of modified machines catching fire or having a strong smell of smoke.

But the inquiry did not take up the offer to speak directly to any of the consumers in cases highlighted by Which?

Charlie Pugsley, deputy assistant commissioner at London Fire Brigade, said the modified machines may be ‘slowly ticking devices’ that could get much worse.

He added: ‘We’ve got 35 now, will that turn into 60 next year, will that turn into 100 the year after? Every one of those fires could kill.’

Nigel Day was watching TV with his family, including his disabled son, when his tumble dryer burst into flames, filling his house with choking black smoke.

The father of four from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, had bought one of the first new models which supposedly had been modified in the factory so it could not catch fire. He said: ‘If this isn’t resolved, someone is going to get killed.’

A Whirlpool spokesman said: ‘Whirlpool does not use stand alone NDAs in the course of negotiating the resolution of compensation claims by consumers.

‘When negotiating compensation payments – which are often conducted by our insurers – standardised documents are sometimes used that may include common confidentiality provisions.

‘Whirlpool has not sought to enforce such provisions against consumers in this context. We have total confidence in the dryer modification which was extensively tested before and after being implemented. Nothing matters more to us than people’s safety.’