Urgent warning issued after household object 'explodes' causing fire

by · Mail Online

A family suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage to their home in a terrifying fire allegedly caused by a vacuum cleaner.

Denise Graovac said her 24-year-old daughter Sophie, who has autism, was home alone on November 18 when she heard an 'explosion'.

She rushed to the garage of the property in Thames Ditton, Surrey, to see what was happening, only to find there were 'flames and smoke everywhere'.

Sophie immediately dialled 999 and the local fire brigade arrived, but the blaze had already wreaked catastrophic damage.

Denise, who is retired, claims firefighters informed her that the re-chargeable lithium battery in her handheld vacuum had likely exploded.

The mother-of-three, 66, said: 'It's just so incredibly scary. People need to know they have ticking time bombs in their homes.

'I've had this vacuum for years and my daughter had used it earlier that day. There were no signs anything was wrong with it.

'But now, our garage is completely destroyed. In it, our washing machine, our tumble dryer - my husband's computer equipment.

Denise Graovac's daughter Sophie (pictured together), who has autism, was home alone on November 18 when she heard an 'explosion' 
The aftermath of the blaze which caused devastation to the family's garage 
Firefighters said the re-chargeable lithium battery in a handheld vacuum had likely exploded 

'We've been without heating and water for the past week week - just when it's gotten really cold. And the soot damage has gone all through the house.' 

The mother explained the garage is internal within the house so could have easily spread to the whole home. 

'If we had been asleep? We could have lost our lives. We could have lost the whole home,' she said. 

'So it could have been worse. Thankfully, we are all okay and the fire was contained.'

Denise and her family have lived in the home for 30 years, so would have been 'devastated' to lose it.

She is now tasked with finding an emergency plumber and electrician to get things up and running again - and speaking to insurance about all the damage that has been caused.

Sophie immediately dialled 999 and the local fire brigade arrived, but the blaze had already wreaked catastrophic damage 
The aftermath of the fire in the family's garage in Thames Ditton, Surrey
The explosion caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to the home in a terrifying fire
The destroyed remains of the garage fire in Surrey, including a vacuum cleaner to the left 

'I have no idea how long it will take to fix everything,' she said.

'But there's thousands of pounds worth of damage. We just had a new garage door. There's all the computer stuff.

'It's not just the fire that causes damage. It's the smoke and the soot and the water damage from putting out the fire.

'You're hearing about these batteries exploding all the time nowadays. It's worrying. People need to know they can't trust these things.'