Warning as horror house fire sparked by every day household object left plugged in for 18 hours
A woman who has been left homeless after a horror house fire has issued a warning about the household appliance that sparked the flames after being plugged in for 18 hours.
Tanya Bennett, 36, was told by firefighters her vacuum cleaner had set alight with her three dogs trapped upstairs whilst she was at work on Monday.
Luckily, a neighbour raised the alarm and firefighters managed to rescue French Bulldogs Lewi and Monkey and her Cockapoo Luna from the burning building.
Every room in the house other than the kitchen suffered fire damage with Ms Bennett estimating it will cost thousands to replace all of her furniture and redecorate.
She had left her vacuum plugged in after cleaning the night before and then gone to work in the morning, leaving it plugged in for 18 hours in total before it ignited.
Ms Bennett was still at work when the fire started and said her neighbour called to tell her about the blaze and informed her she had called the fire brigade.
'I'm absolutely devastated, helpless and in shock. I couldn't believe it when the firefighters said it was caused by the vacuum cleaner,' the marketing manager, from Telford, Shropshire, said.
'When I got home, the firefighters had only recovered one dog as he was in the kitchen which was the only room that wasn't damaged because the door was shut.
Ms Bennett was still at work when the fire started and said her neighbour called to tell her about the blaze and informed her she had called the fire brigade
'The other two dogs were trapped upstairs by the smoke. It was heartbreaking.
'I was screaming and crying and they brought the dogs out one by one. They were black.'
She described how all of her furniture and clothes are 'covered in soot' and her TV cabinet has 'melted'.
'Basically every single item in my house is covered by smoke. There's not one single item that is not. The whole house needs specialist cleaning and I can't go in without PPE,' she added.
With the house completely uninhabitable, Ms Bennett is living in temporary accommodation and doesn't know when she'll be able to go home.
Her dogs are now staying at her friend's house as she isn't allowed to keep them in her temporary accommodation.
Ms Bennett said: 'I didn't think that a vacuum cleaner could even catch fire. How much damage it's caused is crazy. Apparently the dust particles inside are very combustible.
'Just turn everything off at the wall or unplug appliances. Even though the electrics tripped and cut off it didn't matter as the fire still continued once it had sparked.'
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