Dishwasher House Fire

brian33

Hi guys,

My parents woke up to the sound of the fire alarm this morning at 7am. The house was full of smoke...they ran outside immediately, they could see that the fire was in the kitchen. My Dad did a fairly dangerous thing by breaking the kitchen window from the outside with a sledgehammer and using two extinguishers to put out the blaze from outside. If he hadn't done this, the house would almost certainly have burned to the ground.

The fire brigade's forensic investigation is focused on the dishwasher, which was almost certainly the source of the fire. It was actually in standby mode at the time, and not washing dishes. I did a search on the forums for dishwasher fires, and this seems unusual. The dishwasher was bought in the last year and is one of the new type two-drawer ones. The kitchen/dining room/living area is completely ruined and will need to be fully replaced, and there is smoke damage throughout the house. The insurance company are coming out on Tuesday to assess damage. It will likely be many months before my parents can return to living in the house.

I would be very grateful for any advice anyone might be able to offer here. They have full house and contents insurance. Should they be settling for the insurance money when offered or pursuing the manufacturer for compensation? Will they be reimbursed for accommodation until things are fixed? Should they be seeking compensation for distress and inconvenience?

harrys_dad

Claim whatever their policy allows from the insurance and let the insurance company pursue the dishwasher manufacturer if they wish. "Compensation for distress and inconvenience"? Go and find an ambulance chasing lawyer.

shaun_from_Africa

brian33 wrote: »

Will they be reimbursed for accommodation until things are fixed? Should they be seeking compensation for distress and inconvenience?

The accomodation issue all depends on the smallprint in the insurance policy but I would be very surprised to find that it didn't cover alternative accomodation if the house is unsafe or uninhabitable.

They may well be able to claim something for tasks such as having to get laundry done elsewhere or eating out but again, this all depends on the policy details but distress is an unquantifiable subject and it's extremely unlikely that it could be claimed for from the insurers.

brian33

Thanks for your responses. So basically, everything should be sorted through insurance...I guess that makes things easy-ish.

Sorry if the distress/inconvenience thing was silly. It's just such a messed up situation and very upsetting for my parents, and that's before taking into account the time and energy that all of this will take to solve. If the manufacturer is responsible, it seems really crappy that my parents could have died because of this.

Apologies if that sounds a bit dramatic, but if it weren't for the smoke alarm, I would now be preparing for my parents' funeral.

cajef

As a matter of interest and for information if anyone else is considering buying one what make of dishwasher is it?

shaun_from_Africa

It would be worth checking here:
http://www.recalluk.com/latest/product-recall.aspx
to see if there has been a recall for the model in question.

hollydays

You should discuss the dishwasher issue with the fire brigade.

cattie

brian33 wrote: »

Apologies if that sounds a bit dramatic, but if it weren't for the smoke alarm, I would now be preparing for my parents' funeral.

This is why wise people have smoke alarms, to alert them to any fire as soon as it is detected so they can get out of the house or flat.

Be thankful that your parents were sensible enough to have a working smoke alarm, so many people don't have one or don't bother replacing a worn out battery.

I understand how very scary it must have been for them & yes, they are going to have to cope with a lot of stress in getting the place put to rights, but better a bit of stress than being burnt or harmed by smoke. Stress & inconvenience isn't something that the insurance company will pay for.

societys_child

Do the instructions say it should be left in "standby mode"?

brian33

cajef wrote: »

As a matter of interest and for information if anyone else is considering buying one what make of dishwasher is it?

I would prefer not to say until it's been officially recognised that their product was at fault.

brian33

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

It would be worth checking here:
//recall.....
to see if there has been a recall for the model in question.

Thanks for that. No mention of it. I did Google that there was a recall in its native country, but it didn't make it as far as the UK.