St Asaph: Family's dishwasher 'burst into flames'

A couple say their house could have burned down after their dishwasher burst into flames.

The pair from St Asaph in Denbighshire say it is "pure luck" the fire was spotted in time before spreading to the rest of the house.

Electrical retailer Currys have apologised and say they will be monitoring other models closely.

The company is also reassuring others with similar machines that it hasn't found any cause for concern.

Alyn London-Smith was relaxing at home on Saturday, 2 December, just before heading out to collect his wife Ellen from her work Christmas party.

But, having smelled smoke, he went to investigate.

"I suddenly thought to myself that something wasn't right," he said.

"When I got to the kitchen all I could see was a smoky haze which seemed to be coming from the dishwasher.

"I opened the door and saw flames coming out of the bottom of the machine.

"It was pure luck that I hadn't gone to collect my wife already - 20 minutes later and the house would have been empty."

Mr London-Smith turned the dishwasher off and unsuccessfully attempted to put the fire out with water from the sink.

"Then I remembered that a friend had given me an old fire extinguisher a few years ago which was still in a shed in the garden," he said.

"I aimed it at the hole where the flames were coming through and it worked."

But the couple's kitchen ended up covered in soot and extinguisher powder.

Ellen London-Smith added: "It took us the rest of the weekend to clear the mess up - both of us working flat out with help from my mum.

"We bought the dishwasher, a Kenwood KID45S17, from Currys in December 2019 - almost exactly four years to the day it caught fire.

"They sent an engineer to look at it who confirmed that it couldn't be repaired and he seemed to think there'd been a wiring fault.

"Currys have also asked to have the fire-damaged dishwasher back so they can do further checks on it to see what could have gone wrong."

Currys initially offered the couple £79.86 in compensation as the dishwasher was out of warranty, but when approached by BBC Wales, agreed to cover the cost of a new one.

A Currys spokesperson said: "We were extremely shocked to hear about Mr and Mrs London-Smith's case and treat situations like these with the upmost seriousness.

"Our product safety experts have not discovered any inherent issues with this model of dishwasher which should cause other owners concern.

"Nonetheless, we will continue to monitor this product line very closely and will, on this occasion, be offering a full refund to our customers - we are very sorry for the distress this has caused."