RECALL: A faulty dehumidifier is believed to have caught fire inside this Melville, Hamilton, home earlier this month. Fortunately, the house was equipped with smoke alarms and the mother and her three children escaped unscathed.
RECALL: A faulty dehumidifier is believed to have caught fire inside this Melville, Hamilton, home earlier this month. Fortunately, the house was equipped with smoke alarms and the mother and her three children escaped unscathed.
Mitre 10 has reissued its recall notice for a dehumidifier after it is suspected to have caused a house fire from which a mother and her three children escaped unscathed.
Waikato senior fire risk management officer Kevin Holmes said it was the family's smoke alarms which saved their lives onMay 22.
It is suspected the fire started at about midnight in the dehumidifier which was in the hallway of their Melville, Hamilton, home.
The affected 2013 model - Nouveau 16L electronic dehumidifier (Model NH-DB16E) - carries both this model number and the date code 0213. They were sold only through Mitre 10 under the SKU number 154937.
The mother and her three children, aged 4, 8 and 13, safely escaped, with the oldest child even remembering to close the hallway door which helped limit the damage.
Mr Holmes said if the house didn't have its five smoke alarms, it likely wouldn't have had such a successful outcome.
The fire service issued a recall notice for the dehumidifiers in 2014 but the family said they had not seen it.
Although the cause of the fire is being examined by insurance company investigators, Mitre 10 reissued its original recall notice.
The affected 2013 model - Nouveau 16L electronic dehumidifier (Model NH-DB16E) - carries both this model number and the date code 0213.
"The affected 2013 model - Nouveau 16L electronic dehumidifier (Model NH-DB16E) - carries both this model number and the date code 0213. They were sold only through Mitre 10 under the SKU number 154937."
