Tumble dryer fires

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  • #38054
    RocketMan
    Participant

    Hi,

    Totally random I know, but does anyone know of any facts or figures regarding tumble dryer fires in the uk.

    It’s for my wife who is currently completing and advanced H & S course. As part of the course she has to do a number of assignments (3K words) and one of hers is on fire. After doing an external fire audit of a local factory she found the usual domestic tumble dryer getting hammered 8 til 6 every day. Filter not cleaned, unoccupied area of the factory, no fire/heat detector in this room. She just needs some facts and figures and a source to justify any findings and recomendations.

    I’ve seen lots of articles about individual fires and accidents caused by tumble dryers but nothing overall.

    Thanks in advance

    Steve

    #257533
    neilsukwg
    Participant

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Fixing a washing machine for a fireman a while back he told me that tumble dryer fires are a daily occurence (and surprisingly washing machines very common to)

    Maybe a trip down to the local fire station would be a good source of information and anecdotal evidence?

    #257534
    kwatt
    Keymaster

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    If you contact the London Fire Brigade they had an officer that specifically dealt with appliance related fires. It would be interesting to hear what they had to say in all honesty.

    K.

    #257535
    RocketMan
    Participant

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Hi thanks for the replies.

    A quick search this evening and manged to find a few items of interest:

    http://www.dryerbox.com/welcome_dryerbox.htm
    http://www.dryerbox.com/news_articles/2 … _admin.pdf

    “According to the U.S. Fire Administration (Division of U.S. Department of Homeland Security), clothes dryers were involved in an estimated 15,600 U.S. structure fires, fifteen deaths, 400 injuries and $99 million in direct property damage, annually, between 2002-2004. The leading cause of clothes dryer fires was lack of maintenance (lint build-up in the exhaust system)”

    http://www.mawwfire.gov.uk/press_eng/ne … asp?id=154
    http://www.staffordshirefire.gov.uk/ccm … NiE9ig6tvg

    Haven’t been able to get good figures for TD fires in the UK. Lots of individual brigades reporting TD fire but no over all figures. Both Home Office and HSE websites have not been too helpful. Will get the other half to try try the county fire brigade. Not sure how much detail she want though ??

    Thanks again Steve

    #257536
    simonb
    Participant

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Hey i dont know about anyone else but this sort of stuff scares the hell out of me working in this trade. i once repaired a dryer on an estate not far from where i live that night on granada reports (our local news) reported a bad house fire on the same walk that had wiped out the full family, turned out to be right next door.

    #257537
    RocketMan
    Participant

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    UK Fire Statistics for 2006 – Published May 2008
    http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents … ts2006.pdf

    Page 92 – Fire stats for white goods – part of “other electical” section.

    Sorry I didn’t know how to copy just that extract and publish it here – I don’t know if some one else has the ability/knowledge. No problems with copy right though.

    “The Crown copyright protected material (other than departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research, private study or for internal circulation within an organisation.”

    Steve

    #257538

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Slightly lateral to topic but have been thinking about Askoll drain pumps. Some have TOC’s some don’t. For a pound or two extra you can get one with a TOC. Probably worth it.
    Mike.

    #257539
    iadom
    Moderator

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    You have to click on the picture then select full size, no doubt someone with full blown Acrobat would be able to extract the page as a PDF.

    Jim.

    #257540
    Martin114
    Participant

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Or just link to the original pdf…
    http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/fire/pdf/firestats2006.pdf
    😉

    #257541
    iadom
    Moderator

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    He already did, I think he wanted to save people having to download the full PDF then searching through it for the relevant page. 😛 🙂

    PS. Its actually page 90.

    #257542
    Goatboy
    Participant

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Meh, so washing machines are statisically more likey to burst into flames 😕

    #257543

    Re: Tumble dryer fires

    Goatboy wrote:Meh, so washing machines are statisically more likey to burst into flames 😕

    Maybe. Or maybe there are more washing machines than tumble dryers out there and more use is made of them. (A recent survey found that 90{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of surveys produce false results):)
    Mike.

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