Poor appliance safety puts thousands of homes at risk of an electrical fire, says ESC

A rise in fires caused by electrical appliances in the home has led to the Electrical Safety Council (ESC) issuing a warning to home owners to take more care when it comes to their own safety.

According to the ESC, fires from appliance misuse and safety blunders - such as leaving appliances on unsupervised or overloading electrical switches and sockets - had led to a spate of incidents with domestic electrical fires rising by a third since 2009.

And the ESC went on to note that such misuse was already the top cause of all fire in the home. A total of 14,700 incidents were recorded in the last 12 months.

"People think that they are behaving safely but the majority of people we surveyed has put themselves at risk by unknowingly making a safety blunder," said ESC director general Phil Buckle.

The increase of dangerous appliances such as microwaves in UK homes over the past decade is thought to be partly responsible for the statistical rise, but electrical misuse was said the be the main cause of danger.

"Fires caused by misuse of appliances - the vast majority of which are electrical - are so easy to prevent but they will keep increasing unless people understand the simple things that can and do cause fires."

Chief Fire Officers Association president Vij Randeniya told the BBC that he backed the scheme to raise public awareness, and offered tips to homeowners who may be unwittingly exposing themselves to the danger of electrical fires.

The ESC noted that blocking microwave air vents - or using the top of the microwave as an additional kitchen surface - was the most common safety blunder, with leaving the tumble dryer unattended and blocking air vents behind refrigerators being similarly simple blunders.

Overloading adaptor sockets which caused a dangerous rise in temperature was also found to be a risk, with 16 per cent of those surveyed by the ESC admitting to making the mistake.

However, it's not just these common blunders that can be an electrical danger. Improperly installed fixtures and fittings - as well as a faulty or outdated fuse board - could also be responsible for the uptick in incidents of fire.