The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
DRYER DRAMA
Two terrified sisters had to flee their home after an electrical fault in a Beko- make tumble dryer caused a major fire in their kitchen.
Daphne Copeman( 69) and her sister Merle ( 75) have not been able to return home and are staying at a local hotel due to the extent of the fire damage at the house in Yaxley.
The blaze, which started in the utility room and has been traced to an electrical fault in a Beko tumble dryer the sisters bought in August, has left much of the ground floor blackened and a strong smell of smoke in the house.
Both sisters were taken to hospital to receive treatment for smoke inhalation.
Daphne and her sister moved to the property 64 years ago with their parents and five other siblings and both worked as carers at the house, supporting their mother and one of their brothers.
Daphne said: “It’s upsetting no end having lived there all that time.”
Sheadded: “We had got it to the way we wanted it. It’s just a nightmare.”
She said: “We are broken hearted.”
When the fire broke out on February 25 at about 10am, the sisters were upstairs.
Alerted bythe sound of a smoke alarm, Merle rushed downstairs, through the back door leading to the utility room via a hallway and discovered the fire.
Meanwhile, Daphne, who has rheumatoid arthritis and had to use the home’s stair lift, had dialed 999 and was being advised by the fire service to leave the house, after which neighbours came to their aid.
Daphne said: “When Merle opened the back door, she said ‘ we have got a fire’. I said ‘ we have got to get out, just leave everything, we have got to get out’.”
She added: “I never saw the fire, just the smoke coming from the back door.”
“I was petrified. I just went numb. I shook like a leaf.
She said: “They practically had to carry me into the neighbours’.”
Four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used two hosereels and a covering jet to tackle the fire but it was nearly two hours before they were able to leave the scene.
A spokesman for the fire service said: “The cause of the fire was accidental, by electrical fault in the tumble dryer.”
The sisters’ insurance company is now arranging for them to have temporary accommodation in a bungalow while repairs are carried out to their home, which they are being told may take three to six months to complete.
Daphne says the ordeal has taken its toll on her sister.
She said: “It’s knocked her for six.”
Sheadded: “I’m frightened she’s going to collapse. If you could see her she looks like a ghost. Every time I look at her I think ‘ oh my god, she’s going to go’.”