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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Robbie Kane & Anita McSorley & Emma Nevin

Dublin family home 'completely gutted' after fire caused by iPhone left charging on bed

A family home has been "completely gutted" after a horrific fire caused by a mobile phone being left charging on a bed.

The blaze, which happened in Darndale, north Dublin last Wednesday, has meant the family have had to leave their recently refurbished house indefinitely.

A fundraiser has been set up to help the Mangan family get back on their feet and repair the damage done to their home.

The fire started in 11-year-old daughter Saoirse's room and destroyed most of her belongings.

Dublin family's home 'completely gutted' after fire caused by iPhone left charging on bed (Steven Mangan)

The ceiling then caved in and caused extensive damage to the kitchen downstairs.

Steven Mangan spoke to Dublin Live about the horrific ordeal and urged people not to leave devices charging unattended.

He said: "It was last Wednesday at about 12:30pm. I was home from work for lunch and I had just got to the house when I heard the alarm going off.

"We only got the house resealed recently so I didn't notice the smoke from the outside. When I opened the door, the smoke just came out on top of us. I realised then that the house was on fire.

"The place is completely gutted at the minute. We had forensic investigators in here this morning. It was caused by a mobile phone being left charging and left on the bed.

"We're in limbo at the moment to see what's going on because we don't have insurance on it. We'll just have to wait and see.

"Like everyone else we were out of work. I'm a musician and we were all out of work. You never think these things are going to happen."

He said his daughter Saoirse lost most of her belongings, including makeup, clothes and half of her Christmas presents.

The ceiling collapsed after they doused it with water to stop the fire from spreading.

Dublin family's home 'completely gutted' after fire caused by iPhone left charging on bed (Steven Mangan)

Steven said he and his wife had only recently finished refurbishing the home.

"We literally just finished it. During the lockdown, we had nothing else to do.

"We had only basically finished it at Christmas.

"We have no electricity now, no gas, no nothing. The ESB had to cut it all off because the house has to be rewired again."

He urged people to never leave things plugged in overnight.

"Never leave anything plugged in overnight. Especially not a phone, especially not in a bedroom. We actually thought it was a curling wand or a GHD that set the fire off first. We only found out today that it was a mobile.

"The only thing that saved half of the house is that we have good fire doors upstairs and we had the doors closed.

"It could have been a lot worse."

If you would like to make a donation to the Mangan family, you can find the GoFundMe here.

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