Blaze warning dryer blamed for f ire that killed Scots cafe boss
A TuMBLE dryer caught fire before a blaze gutted a flat killing two men.
The sole survivor of the tragedy said he saw flames coming out of the drum of the machine.
The Hotpoint model has been linked to a major safety alert and uS firm Whirlpool, which owns the brand, has been criticised for failing to advise owners to stop using dryers identified as a potential fire hazard.
Scot Doug McTavish, a 39year-old restaurant manager, and Bernard Hender, a 19-yearold chef, died in the blaze in the Snowdonia village of Llanrwst in 2014, an inquest heard.
Mr McTavish was born in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, and had two sisters.
An earlier hearing was told some experts believed a fault in the dryer’s door mechanism could have sparked the blaze.
A fire officer told the inquest the ‘greater likelihood’ was that the fire started ‘in or around the tumble dryer’, but he was unable to identify the exact cause.
Various dryers made by Hotpoint, Indesit and Creda between 2004 and 2015 are subject to a safety notice about a fire risk caused by excess fluff coming into contact with the heating element.
Fire chiefs warned last October that owners must stop using them. One had been the cause of a huge blaze in an 18-storey block in Shepherd’s Bush, London.
Whirlpool stuck to urging customers to register for a free modification, saying the machines were safe to use providing they were not left unattended.
An enforcement order was then issued by trading standards, which advises owners to unplug the machine and stop using it until it has been fixed.
Whirlpool was represented by a barrister at yesterday’s inquest in Abergele, North Wales, which was told the fire started in a flat above a funeral parlour on October 9.
Funeral director Garry Lloyd Jones, 50, the business partner of Mr McTavish and the partner of Mr Hender, said the blaze woke him at 6am – five hours after the dryer was turned off.
He said flames 18in high were coming out of the drum.
He added: ‘It was getting thicker and thicker and I started shouting for Doug and knocking on the door saying, “Get out, there’s a fire”.
‘I went to the bed and I grabbed Bernie’s wrist and I pulled him and shouted “Come on, the house is on fire, get up”.
‘I said, “Get to the floor” because you could see the smoke was less dense on the floor. I said, “Dive to the floor”.
‘He said, “I can’t find the door” and he just screamed and that was the last I heard of him.’
Mr Lloyd Jones agreed that the door to the utility room was open but he had not closed it before going to bed. He said: ‘I will ask myself why I did not do that for the rest of my life.’
Dominic Adamson, representing Whirlpool, said an expert report showed coins, collar stiffeners, plastic and lint were in the machine after the fire, but Mr Lloyd Jones said he regularly removed lint from the filter.
Paul Jenkinson, of North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: ‘The most probable cause of the fire was connected to the dryer but the cause of the ignition has not been established.
‘It could be a fault in the programming controls, or electrical activity in the power system. It could be things connected to the tumble dryer which have not been investigated.’
Assistant coroner David Lewis said: ‘No organisation or individual is on trial.’
The hearing continues.
‘Flames were getting thicker’