'I left for 10 minutes': Family homeless after washing machine bursts into flames
A woman with six children says she has been left homeless after their house was destroyed by a faulty washing machine that caught fire.
Samantha Murphy claimed her Samsung washing machine, which was among a batch recalled in 2013, burst into flames on Saturday morning just minutes after she left her rental in Aberdare, in the NSW Lower Hunter Region.
She switched it on as she walked out, but said she returned home 10 minutes later to find the washer had electrically combusted and totally wrecked her home.
Firefighters responded to her call for help just before 9am and extinguished a small fire in the laundry before leaving within the hour.
The mother warned other people on a Facebook group to check the serial number on their Samsung machines before continuing to use them.
“Please check that your Samsung wasn’t one of these ones that were recalled, as I was unaware that my one was until the firefighters told me,” she wrote in a post.
Photos shared to the group showed walls bordering the machine’s nook and the entire bathroom completely covered in black smoke stains.
The machine itself appeared to be burnt out and coated in charcoal-covered fabric debris.
“I put on a load this morning and left the house for 10 minutes and came back to this,” Ms Murphy wrote.
“What isn’t burnt is severely smoke damaged and our home is ruined.”
Speaking with Yahoo News Australia, the mother said she had contacted Samsung for support.
Australian models SW80SPWIP/XSA, SW65V9WIP/XSA, WA85GWGIP/XSA, SW70SPWIP/XSA, WA85GWWIP/XSA and SW75V9WIP/XSA were recalled.
They were sold between 2010 and 2013, and were responsible for causing more than 200 incidents, including 18 after a Fair Trading NSW approved repair.
Samsung first announced the recall in 2013 and have since been campaigning for customers to return affected machines.
About a third of owners of the 150,000 faulty machines had responded to the warning by July 2017.
A Samsung spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia the company took the “safety of its customers extremely seriously” and had made contact with customer.
“We are deeply concerned to hear about an apparent incident in Aberdare, NSW, allegedly involving a washing machine that is subject to a recall that was announced in April 2013,” they said in a statement.
The company said it had now offered Ms Murphy temporary accomodation and emergency funds to assist her and her family following the accident.
“Samsung initiated a voluntary recall on six models of top loader washing machines in April 2013. While we have identified and resolved more than 91 per cent of the impacted top loaders, we continue to work to find every possible unit,” the spokesperson said.
“Customers who have a recall model are eligible to receive a refund or replacement with a new washing machine.
“We continue to urge customers who have an older model Samsung top loader washing machine to check the model details to see if their unit is subject to the recall.”
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