London Fire Brigade has issued an urgent warning about the fire risk of certain fridge-freezers, following confirmation that a blaze last week in a London tower block was caused by a faulty appliance.
Beko fridge-freezers manufactured between January 2000 and October 2006 are at the centre of the safety warning, and it is thought as many as 500,000 could be in use. London Fire Brigade say there have been 20 fires in the capital alone involving the fridge freezers since 2008, which have seen one person die and 15 people injured.
Owners of the appliances are asked to contact Beko on 0800 009 4837. A list of faulty model numbers can be found here. The same recall applies to a model badged LEC fridge freezer.
Last week’s fire, which was originally thought to have been caused by a lightning strike, damaged part of a flat on the 17th floor of a tower block in south London.
Over the last three years, fire investigators have been working to establish the link between a faulty defroster timer switch on the appliances and a number of house fires. The problem occurs when water gets into the defrost timer switch in the fridge freezer, which can lead to an electrical malfunction resulting in plastic components and other highly flammable insulation inside the appliance catching fire.
The fire service formally alerted Beko to the problem in June 2010, and the manufacturer has been trying to locate the products to remedy the fault.
“Any fire can be lethal, but the London Fire Brigade is particularly concerned about this because fires involving any sort of fridge-freezer develop rapidly and produce an enormous amount of toxic smoke,” said assistant commissioner for fire safety regulation, Steve Turek.
“Expert fire investigators have had to work for a long time to confidently establish these faulty fridge-freezers as the cause of a number of serious fires. Having established this link, we have worked closely with Beko to ensure the public is kept safe.”
Mr Turek urged everyone who has a Beko fridge-freezer to check it is not one of those highlighted by the company as potentially faulty, and reminded everyone to make sure they have a working smoke alarm in their house.
In a statement, Beko plc said that since becoming aware of the issue, the company has been working to identify the fault and the best method of reaching all affected consumers to arrange a modification.
“We are working with a major electronics retailer to contact owners of these products and carry out a free of charge modification to replace the defrost timer. We have adopted a phased approach which allows us to make maximum use of their resource. This allows us to quickly identify which products are affected and have the modification carried out.
“As a result of this ongoing activity we have mailed over 200,000 owners and have successfully located and modified 11,000 units.”
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