Smoke alarm alerts sleeping couple to dishwasher blaze

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue received a call at 2.12am from the householders and sent on-call firefighters from Harrold Community Fire Station and their full-time colleagues from Bedford Community Fire Station to the incident in in Lodge Road, Sharnbrook.

When the Harrold firefighters arrived 11 minutes later they found the dishwasher in the kitchen on fire. Wearing breathing apparatus to protect themselves from smoke and fumes they used a fire hose to put it out.

They then cleared the smoke using positive pressure ventilation.

Firefighter David Lee said: “Fortunately the people in the house, who were asleep at the time, were woken by their smoke alarm which enabled them to get out of the property quickly and alert the fire service.

“The fire started in a dishwasher and caused damage to the work surfaces surrounding the appliance and smoke damage to the kitchen and ground floor.

“We believe the fire was caused by a fault with machine and was extinguished by firefighters wearing breathing apparatus using a hose reel. After the fire was out we removed the dishwasher and isolated the water supplies and cleared the smoke from the property.

“The important message here is that the smoke alarm bought the occupants enough time to get out of the house and call the fire service which in turn enabled us to get to the incident quickly and prevent any further damage being caused.

“If you don’t have a smoke alarm, get one, it could save your life. If you have one, don’t forget to test it regularly.

“Also we are currently recruiting on-call firefighters at Harrold Community Fire Station, why not join us in protecting our community?”

The fire started accidentally in a Hotpoint Ultima FDW80/85 dishwasher and the incident was closed at 2.49am.

Harrold fire station is entirely crewed by on-call firefighters, if you’d like to join them visit bit.ly/1YoRaYN for more details or email [email protected] or call 01234 845000.