Faulty BEKO appliance blamed for fire death
It is believed that a fire which killed a 36 year old man in Wealdstone last November was caused by a faulty fridge freezer.
Mr Santosh Benjamin-Muthiah died from a lack of oxygen to the brain after inhaling fumes in the blaze at his home in Grant Road on 11th November.
It is now believed the cause of the blaze was a model of Beko fridge freezer that has been recalled for being faulty. Beko had been informed by fire chiefs in June 2010 about the safety issue but the firm admitted that it did not inform retailers of the danger until eight months later.
Steve Turek from London Fire Brigade, said after the product recall that he was worried about fires involving this sort of fridge freezer: “They develop rapidly and produce an enormous amount of toxic smoke. Expert fire investigators have had to work for a long time to confidently establish these faulty fridge freezers as the cause of a number of serious fires. Having established this link, we have worked closely with BEKO to ensure the public is kept safe.”
A statement on the Beko website reads: “We deeply regret any incident involving any Beko product and we are working with all relevant organisations to rectify an identified problem with some of our fridge freezers. Quality, customer safety and satisfaction is paramount to Beko. All its products are independently tested before being placed on the market and meet all UK and European safety standards. The number of incidents to which these products have been potentially linked is extremely small, nevertheless, as a responsible manufacturer, we have decided to proactively contact the owners of these fridge freezers to make a free in-home modification to remove any potential risk with this component.”
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