House fire caused by overheated plug socket

A 14-year-old girl rang the Control Room this afternoon after she heard the smoke alarms going off upstairs.

Firefighters from Chelmsford and Brentwood were called to the incident on Beaches Drive in Chelmsford at 1:30pm.

When crews arrived, they discovered a fire on the top floor of a converted bungalow.

Watch Manager Andy Edwards said: “When we arrived, we found a fully developed fire on the first floor of the property. Firefighter Small and Firefighter Devlin went in with Breathing Apparatus and did an amazing job in difficult conditions.

“Unfortunately, the whole first floor has been damaged by the fire and the rest of the property is heavily damaged by smoke and water. The cause of the fire was an overheated plug socket used for a gaming device.

“Please look out for the danger signs with electrical appliances. Hot plugs or sockets, scorch marks, fuses that often blow, or flickering light are all signs of loose wiring or other electrical problems.”

Follow our electrical fire safety advice

• Look out for signs: hot plugs or sockets, scorch marks, fuses that often blow, or flickering light are all signs of loose wiring or other electrical problems
• Replace badly wired plugs: any wires sticking out could come loose and debris could also get into the plug
• Don't overload sockets, leads or adaptors: plugging too many electrical appliances into one socket can lead to overheating. Extension leads and adaptors have a limit on how many amps they can take
• Use sockets safely: it’s better to use a bar adaptor (multi board) on a lead than a block adaptor
• Only use one adaptor per socket: don’t plug one adaptor into another and try to keep to one plug per socket