Mum's 'awful' warning after common household item destroys 'everything' inside home
The family returned from a trip away to see their house was on fire which also killed their pet cat.
A heartbroken mum claims her tumble dryer caused a fire that destroyed her family home and tragically killed their pet cat who was trapped inside.
Jade Beaumont, 29, returned home from a weekend away with her husband Simon, 31, and son Jack, three, to discover smoke billowing from the property and the fire alarm sounding.
"Nothing could’ve warned us for what we were about to see," Jade said. "The smell will haunt me for the rest of my life. I cannot describe how awful and how strong it was".
'I was screaming hysterically'
The 29-year-old said she was "petrified" upon entering the property because "I didn’t know what had happened and how bad it was".
"I was screaming hysterically and my husband rang 999," she said — the emergency number in England where they live.
"Three fire engines came in what felt like seconds and were absolutely amazing," she added. "But everything we owned except the clothes we were wearing were gone".
Family 'lost everything' in fire
The nursery worker says she has lost everything in the home they lived in for the past eight years including precious and "irreplaceable” items – and, most tragically, her 15-year-old cat, Charlie.
"All the pictures had melted and everything was black including the furniture, walls, ceiling. I had a photo wall with hundreds of photographs – some were original and irreplaceable," she said.
"We lost sentimental belongings of my husband’s late grandad, wedding dress, our wedding album, all of our clothes."
Tumble dryer likely to blame
Jade was allegedly told by the firefighters that the tumble dryer is likely to blame for the fire which had been switched on, but not in use, while they were away — but the exact reason remains unknown.
"I was so shocked – I never realised a dryer could set on fire while not actually in use. I'm warning everyone to check their appliances before going away," she said.
"I did notice a burnt shelf that was on the wall where the dryer was, the next time I went into the kitchen that had completely turned to ash".
How can a tumble dryer cause a fire?
Lint buildup inside the appliance can start a fire as it's highly flammable, the NSW Rural Fire Service previously warned. The RFS recommends cleaning the lint filter each and every time a clothes dryer is used to reduce the risk of fire in your home.
In 2019, a family from Murrumbateman, about 30 kilometres northwest of Canberra, were sitting in their lounge room when their clothes dryer suddenly caught fire but were able to quickly move the dryer outside and extinguish it with a garden hose.
Earlier this year, a man in Spain narrowly escaped a fiery explosion at a laundromat after a cigarette lighter left inside a pant pocket caused a drier to explode.
"The message is to always check your pockets, not only for the tissues that turn your clothes into a white mess, but more importantly for the modern conveniences such as batteries and lighters," Superintendent Adam Dewberry from NSW Fire and Rescue told Yahoo News Australia at the time.
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