Wilko Stores & Daewoo SDA1247 Hot Water Dispenser House Fire

TrevorMatthews

We bought a Daewoo SDA1247 hot water dispenser from Wilko Stores Ltd in 2019.

On June the 17th I noticed they had one back in stock and I had been so pleased with the current one I bought another to store as a backup or when the current one eventually failed.

The brand new one was stored unopened in a understairs cupboard.

On Tuesday the 27th October 2020 around 10-pm I decided to get the new one unboxed and put out in the kitchen to replace the existing one, we had a plasterer coming the next day to do the hallway and the old unit was a bit grubby. Didn't want him making tea from the old one :-)

Plugged it in, dispensed two cups of hot water to clean it out and then made a cup of tea. No problems at all. Went to bed around midnight.

Just an hour and a half later at 1-35am out monitored ADT alarm went off, but the alarm tone was different to the usual one that sounds if a PIR is triggered because we forgot to put the dogs to bed for instance. I hadn't even managed to get out of bed when the phone starts ringing. It was ADT telling me we have a fire in the house.

As I continue to talk to the ADT guy I walk down the stairs, on the way down I am telling him "I can assure you we do not have a fire" I round the corner and see the hallway is full of smoke, I entered the hallway and looked right, into the kitchen, the Daewoo SDA1247 was literally in flames. I ran to the kitchen, grabbed some tea towels, soaked them in the sink and smothered the fire, I could see flame and glowing underneath the wet tea towel so quickly reached over and pulled the plug out of the wall and then threw a palm full of water over the tea towel, finally putting out the flames. I then opened the window next to the Daewoo.

You can see a slide show of some damage on my youtube channel. I am not allowed to post links it seems so search for Trevs Shed on youtube youtu.be/SI3Cv4y3uz8

The actual fire was recorded on a CCTV camera and can be viewed, again, on my youtube channel. I am not allowed to post links it seems so search for Trevs Shed on youtube youtu.be/G7qFTnJMl-Q

Notice how quickly a small flicker changes to a serious situation with 2-3 foot flames.

We had a very close call. Virtually any other situation you can think of could have produced a far more, potentially deadly situation. If we had gone out, if we didn't have smoke alarms etc etc.

I went to Wilko Stores Ltd in Rushden later that morning and eventually had contact with Wilko customer service and fairly soon after that a call from their legal dept, I don't see the need to give out the names of the staff. Whilst initial contact went how I expected it soon deteriorated into no contact unless it was done through their loss adjuster Sedgewick.

I have contacted every organisation I can think of to alert them of the potential problems with this appliance, including the importer.

Whilst we have minimal damage we have a quote from a specialist smoke/fire damage restoration company to clean everything and that will cost £3800

The damage to the work surface and other low cost items like the window blinds amounts to about a £1000.

It quickly became clear that Wilko Stores Ltd had no intention of assisting us in any way. The only thing they have done to help was to find the receipt on their systems for us.

And they can do this if you purchased something on a card, if you give them your card details.

Their loss adjuster was to call out to inspect the damage but cancelled a few hours before they were due as Wilko had not found the receipt at that point, the receipt was found and they eventually contacted us to say they would have to arrange a video call inspection. We have been waiting for the past 10 days and that still hasn't happened.

In the meantime they have asked a specialist company to collect and forensically inspect the item. Burgoynes Consulting Scientists.

They collected the item a week ago, took hundreds of images of the house and told me the item would be looked at this week and a report probably produced sometime next week.

We will not be told what the report says or get a copy from Burgoynes.

We must hope that Sedgewick, the loss adjuster, tells us what the report contains, if they fail to do so we can submit a subject access request.

So three and a bit weeks in we have soot all over the ground floor, mostly in the kitchen, damage to the work surface and window blinds and are getting no help from Wilko.

Their loss adjusters told me I should put this through our own insurance companies........ But why should we? We have had to report the incident to both the contents and the building insurance companies as failure to do so may invalidate our policy, just like a car policy! Even that may affect our next premiums. But if we put claims in can we trust our insurance companys to go after Wilko to get the loss back? I don't think we can. So next years premium would be very much higher than this year and we have done nothing wrong.

I can see that we will have to take Wilko to the small claims court sometime soon as I don't see them putting this right.

We have legal cover with our home insurance and I have phoned the help line a number of times anout this matter.

Wilko and the loss adjuster have refused to answer the following question on two occasions, "Has this item been removed from Wilko shelves?, has the item been recalled?"

Emails from the loss adjuster now say Without Prejudice, which means the contents of the emails can not be used in court unless both parties agree.

They have told me not to contact Wilko as they won't reply and will only forward the emails to the loss adjuster.

Some thoughts. Check your smoke alarms and make sure they are fitted in the correct places. Have legal cover on at least one insurance policy. Keep your receipts. Don't expect these companies to do the right thing, these days they are only interested in what they can get away with from a legal standpoint. Make sure you have some fire extinguishing equipment. Take video, photos and document everything if this happens to you. Record phone calls after telling them you are.

And so we battle on............

Homer_home

Is your own insurance not dealing with this ? It is what you pay them for after all

TrevorMatthews

I could put this through both our contents and buildings insurers but why would we do that?

That will lead to policy excess payments and years of increased insurance premiums.

We are still no further forward with this and I have just put in Subject Access Requests to Wilko stores LTD, Sedgwick Loss adjusters and Burgoynes Scientific engineers.

If that doesn't produce a copy of the forensic examination report, or at least a summary of the report we will then have to progress to threatening court action. They have 28 days to respond to the SAR.

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi Trev.

Do you have any reason to believe that the Daewoo SDA1247 is an inherently dangerous appliance that has been manufactured with a dangerous design flaw? Have you heard of any other instances of this happening? Or could it be an unfortunate, virtually 'one-of'' incident? 

You have done the right thing; 'I have contacted every organisation I can think of to alert them of the potential problems with this appliance, including the importer', and I don't know if you've missed any organisation of that list? I presume you've investigated this? In which case they will investigate it too, and hopefully make the correct reasoned judgement on what should happen with these appliances. 

Job done.

I don't think you are right in chasing them for the damage caused; that is what your insurance is for. 

DiddyDavies

TrevorMatthews said:

We are still no further forward with this and I have just put in Subject Access Requests to Wilko stores LTD, Sedgwick Loss adjusters and Burgoynes Scientific engineers.

If that doesn't produce a copy of the forensic examination report, or at least a summary of the report we will then have to progress to threatening court action. They have 28 days to respond to the SAR.

If/when they respond to the SAR request, they don't have to supply a copy of the report or even a summary of it.
A SAR applied for in your name is for obtaining personal data relating specifically to you and even if your name is mentioned on the report, this doesn't automatically qualify it as personal data as far as the GDPR & SAR are concerned.