Electric blanket blamed for house

Harish Mistry won't let his children use electric blankets again after one caught fire and gutted his Hamilton house yesterday.

"They can use nothing now ... they can put on two pairs of socks and use extra blankets," the superette owner said.

Just before 1.40am Mr Mistry's eldest son raised the alarm in their house behind the shop, saying his electric blanket was on fire.

Mr Mistry tried to control the flames with blankets then tried to throw the burning mattress out the window.

But the house went up in flames. "It didn't even take 10 minutes."

Hamilton Fire Service station officer Bruce MacGregor said the fire took 30 minutes to control but firefighters stayed at the scene for several hours to make sure it didn't spread to the dairy.

"It was a lucky save, all right. If we were there five minutes later it would have gone up."

Mr Mistry said he bought the electric blankets this year.