Faulty BEKO Fridge Blamed For North London House Fire That Killed Mum And Five Children

Posted on 26 Sep 2011 at 10:10am
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Faulty BEKO Fridge Blamed For North London House Fire That Killed Mum And Five Children

A faulty BEKO fridge was blamed yesterday for the horrific house fire in Neasden, North London that killed a mum and five of her children in the early hours of Saturday.

Friends of the of the tragedy have raised concerns that the raging inferno could have been started by family’s BEKO fridge bursting into flames as the family slept in their beds.

Investigators are now trying to discover exactly whether the model the electrical appliance was and if it is linked to the other 30 fires in London this year.

A spokeswoman for London Ambulance said that Muna Elmufatish, 41, her daughters Hanin, 14, Basma, 13, and Amal, nine were all found dead at the scene but medics had fought desperately to save the life of Muna’s little  boy Mustafa, five, who was in cardiac arrest but tragically couldn’t save him.

The father who survived along with a daughter of 16, told friends from his hospital bed that the ageing fridge’s cooler had leaked:

“He saw the fridge on fire. He tried to go outside for water to put it out, but when he opened the door air rushed in and there was an explosion. The police have asked what fridge it was. He thinks it was a BEKO”, said a friend of the devastated family.

BEKO recalled some 500,000 faulty fridge freezers nine-months ago on advice from Trading Standards of faulty defrost timers deemed to be a dangerous fire hazard.

MEDIA STATEMENT
Ref. Important Safety Issue with some Beko Fridge Freezers
BEKO PLC

BEKO PLC has received confirmation from the London Fire Brigade that the tragic fire in Neasden on Saturday, 24th September 2011 was not caused by a Beko Fridge Freezer.

Ragip Balcioglu, managing director of Beko plc said; “This is a deeply tragic incident and we offer our deepest condolences to the Kua family at this difficult time.

“The safety of all our products is Beko’s highest priority. All our products are subject to rigorous independent testing to European standards. All our current models are 100% safety compliant and safe for use”.

In December 2010, Beko plc was made aware by the London Fire Brigade that certain models of Beko frost free fridge freezers manufactured between January 2000 and October 2006 may, in some circumstances, fail and overheat.

Beko plc is continuing to urge all owners of Beko frost free fridge freezers, either in their own home or in properties that they let or manage to take the following steps:
- Check the model number and serial number of your fridge freezer. The frost free fridge freezer models affected were manufactured between January 2000 and October 2006. These have a serial number that begins with either 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 or 06 and this information can be found on a label inside the fridge
- If you own an affected product, or if you are unsure if your product is affected, call the Beko free phone number on 0800 009 4837 between 8:00am and 8:00pm Monday to Sunday. Beko will arrange to visit your home and make the modification completely free of charge. The modification will take approximately 30 minutes. Please have to hand the model and serial number of your product when you call
- Further details can be found on the Beko web-site beko.co.uk, where you can also check if your product is affected by entering the model and serial number.
Other Beko branded models and all Beko frost free fridge freezers manufactured after October 2006 are unaffected.