Tumble dryer fires

[RocketMan]

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

[neilsukwg]

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?

[kwatt]

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.

[RocketMan]

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

[simonb]

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.

[RocketMan]

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

[leavemetogetonwithit]

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.

[iadom]

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.

[Martin114]

Re: Tumble dryer fires

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

[iadom]

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.

[Goatboy]

Re: Tumble dryer fires

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

[leavemetogetonwithit]

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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