The Metropolitan Police's Detective Chief Superintendent Fiona McCormack has given a statement to the press regarding the recent Grenfell fire, and named Hotpoint as the make of the fridge-freezer that caught fire in a flat in the tower block.
“We are concerned about the fridge-freezer in this matter and we have been working with the Department of Energy, Business and Industrial Strategy, who are working with Hotpoint on the safety of the fridge,” she said.
“We know that the fire wasn't started deliberately and we know that the fridge-freezer has never been subject to a product recall,” she added. “Further tests are ongoing on that fridge.”
It is very early days since the terrible incident at Grenfell Tower and in addition to the alleged cause of the blaze, how the fire spread so quickly in respect of the external building cladding and other contributing factors to the sheer scale of the disaster, such as allegations that poor building management meant fire exits were not free from obstruction, it is too early to draw conclusions. Whilst we obviously need to wait for the findings of any investigations and the likely public inquiries we must now start asking the relevant questions to our home appliance manufacturers.
Whilst Hotpoint did not cause the fire to spread so quickly it stands to reason that if a Hotpoint appliance started the fire under normal usage, and one that unlike tumble dryers cannot be monitored when using but stays on 24/7, then it is just one more appliance in a list of hundreds of thousands across many brands (not just Hotpoint) that is putting consumers at risk of fire.
It is undeniable to see a trend happening here in home appliances and fire risk. Safety must come before profit and perhaps it is time to have a public enquiry into appliance brands themselves given that so many are either being recalled over fire safety concerns or are subject to initial concerns and incident of fire which may or may not yet result in a recall.
Fire Safety Scandal
Until Whirlpool are seen to act against this growing fire safety scandal every news item about Whirlpool on this site will have the tag #whirlpool-hotpoint-creda-indesit-fire to inform consumers that despite all the awards and achievements Whirlpool boast about, at heart your safety isn’t something it appears to put first.