With news of exploding appliances hitting the press (no pun intended!) again this week, Trustmark’s latest initiative is timely. The organisation has partnered with CFOA Blue Watch, the Chief Fire Officers’ home safety scheme, to promote the assessment and registration of safety features and appliances.

Supported by UK Fire and Rescue services, Blue Watch provides help and support to households to reduce hazards posed by electricity, gas, fire and carbon monoxide, for example. The Blue Watch logo shows that a trusted fire safety professional has validated a property or safety product – and of course Trustmark endorses the need for qualified and experienced professionals to install and maintain appliances.

For while it’s the exploding appliance that’s generally blamed, so often it’s actually the way it’s been fitted in the first place or how it’s been treated since, that’s the real problem.  People moving home sometimes dismantle appliances to make them more easily transportable (and then don’t reassemble them again correctly) or perhaps connect something up that they shouldn’t be fiddling around with. Few notify the manufacturers of their move. And then there’s the misuse…

Some years ago I kept getting shocks from my washing machine as I unloaded my washing. I’d thought it was just the cold, as the machine was in an unheated extension, but it turned out that I was receiving electric shocks as a result of something my (now-ex) partner had done when he connected it up after our house move. If I’d not mentioned it to my father, I might not be here now. The experience has taught me to use a qualified professional every time – and register my products, so manufacturers know where I am in the event of a product recall.

The more we can do to get the message across, the better.

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Yours,

Jan Hobbs