Why your phone charger could kill you
This blog was written in March shortly after the fire at our home which caused extensive damage. We are happy to tell you that we are now safely settled back at home and renovations have begun including the completion of a smart new home office!
Why Your Phone Charger Could Kill You
Yes, I know, that’s a strong headline – but it’s absolutely true and I’m going to tell you why you need to rethink your iPhone/iPad/Android charger. This is my own story and it makes for an interesting (and worrying) read.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that I’ve been quiet these past few weeks? Unfortunately, I had a very harrowing experience at home. It was 2pm on the 9th of February, a bright day for winter. I popped out of my home office to make a sandwich and said to my wife, Tricia, that I fancied pottering in the garden for a few minutes before going back to my desk. Tricia was tending to some chores around the house, she’d just started boiling some potatoes and while waiting for them to cook, she decided to do some vacuuming while I was in the garden to avoid disturbing my work calls later on. I remember this well because she’d asked me to remember to take the vacuum cleaner downstairs later.
While I was outside, the smoke alarm started to sound. I rushed inside to the kitchen as I thought it must be the potatoes! However, within seconds I realised that the curtains were on fire in my office, upstairs. Luckily, both of us were downstairs. I started to rush up the stairs but was overcome by smoke and fumes, so I retreated back down. I was covered in soot! Meanwhile, Tricia had called 999 and the fire engines arrived within 5 minutes.
At this point, we were in shock. Outside our house, the neighbours were busy trying to help and get us some tea. The firefighters needed to turn the power off immediately and asked me where the circuit board was. It was in the garage and I needed the keys so without thinking, started to go back into the house but immediately I was stopped by the firemen who instructed me that it was completely unsafe for me to go back inside. The fire was still raging and there were plumes of smoke. I told the firemen where the keys to the garage were and they turned the power off. By this point, it was 3.00pm, there were two fire trucks and the road was closed off. We were held behind a barrier, it was chaos! Not to mention that our house is extremely close to a primary school and it was pick-up time, there was a lot of traffic and cars re-routing.
The firemen put the fire out and realised that the fire was caused by my bulky phone charger (from Amazon) that was plugged into the wall. Apparently this is extremely common and happens more than you can imagine. The charger gets too hot and bursts into flames. While we were unbelievably unlucky, we were also very lucky too. Had it have happened at night while we were sleeping, I wouldn’t be writing this today. From memory, the firemen told me that they’d attended at least 11 of these types of fires in recent times. Later on, the loss adjustor told me that unfortunately, she’d also attended at least a dozen homes who’d fallen victim to phone charger fires too. I am telling you this because I want you to be vigilant. Either charge your phone right next to you where you can see it (although I don’t advise this really), or get the newer wall plug plates with USB ports built-in. That’s what my electrician advised too.
If you ever go through what I’ve gone through, and I sincerely hope you don’t, there are lots of things that you realise afterwards. For example, we had to board-up the smashed windows – quickly. We were also lucky that we could stay with family down the road. A lot of people don’t have family nearby and have to spend months living in hotel rooms. We also have cats – we had to think about them. Then there were the practicalities, like getting computers, printers and iPads etc. I went into my local Apple store a couple of days later with my son-in-law planning to buy replacements, using my own Apple ID to download my documents from the Cloud. Well, guess what, they asked for ID for my Apple ID – and I didn’t have any because all my documents went up in smoke! My debit card melted (see the picture) so I couldn’t even get cash out and going to the bank was a similar fiasco. I know it’s security but you should think about how you’d get access to your private information without ID. I am lucky, my son-in-law paid for everything (I have since paid him back) and I did have access to my own cash very quickly – (I needed in the region of £20k just to pay for specialist cleaners, specialist electricians, boarding up windows, clothing, computers etc.). What happens to those people who can’t get hold of cash quickly?
In the meantime, we also had to get specialist cleaners in who had to wear protective clothing because the soot in the house was so acidic and toxic. The windows left were so black with soot, we couldn’t see out of them. It took four days for the specialist cleaners to clean up the home, so it was safe to live in again. We had to wash every item of clothing that was salvaged – and that’s a lot of washing! Before the specialist cleaners could come into the house, we needed an emergency electrician in to locate a circuit to bypass everything to power-up the house safely. Thankfully, they were able to find an unused circuit so that was done without too much fuss, but the entire process was more than stressful and while we’re back at home now (with half the house in ruins), we’re shaken (and grateful to be alive). We also had to organise a new burglar alarm as that was destroyed in the fire too.
The loss adjustor was shocked at the destruction. They took two weeks to get to us because they’d had another severe situation that had sadly resulted in a fatality. Then, 6 weeks later, we got the go-ahead from the insurance company who’d asked me to detail every item that we’d lost –who can remember everything? We started writing things down but honestly, it’s impossible to remember it all. The insurance company asked for receipts and photographs of the items lost in the fire, who photographs their modem for example? Certainly not me! Any receipts I had (and I didn’t have many, I don’t tend to keep receipts from 25 years ago), went up in flames. You just have to do your best and it isn’t easy. Thank goodness for insurance though. You must make sure you have suitable insurance in place, but that will be a blog for another day.
I will talk about the importance of home insurance, working-from-home insurance and having some sort of plan in place for these emergency situations in another blog. I am telling you my story because I want to help you and for you to learn from my unfortunate situation. Please do have some readily available cash (not at home, it might go up in smoke). Please re-think your phone chargers (bin those Amazon wall chargers), change your plug plates and make sure your backdoor/garage keys are easily accessible for emergencies and if you have a fire, GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSE IMMEDIATELY.