Smoking vacuum damages house

12:50pm Tuesday 6th November 2001

SMOKE damaged a Denton home when a vacuum cleaner caught fire by the back door.

Firefighters were called out to Alexander Road on November 4 when a smoking vacuum cleaner left by the backdoor set fire to rubbish.

The householder, believed to be a woman in her 30s, had finished her vacuuming and switched off the machine.

When she went upstairs, her smoke detector went off and she realised smoke was coming out of the machine.

She then threw the vacuum cleaner out of her back door and went to her nextdoor neighbour where she called the fire brigade.

A spokesman for Thames-side Fire Station said: “When we arrived, the hoover had caught fire because it was next to some rubbish by the back door.

“This caused the PVC door to melt, the glass exploded and black smoke filled the house.”

He added: “Although it was very good the owner had a smoke detector and alerted the fire brigade straight away, it would have been better if she had put the hoover in the garden, away from the building.

“That could have prevented smoke damage in her house.”