A mum has issued a warning after her clothes caught fire inside her tumble dryer. The blaze took place at Jennifer Reynold's Prestonpans home on Sunday afternoon, before her hero neighbour stepped in to stop flames spreading.
Quick-thinking Gary Armstrong sprang into action and launched the burning clothing out of Jennifer's window, almost sparking a separate incident when they landed on the garden washing line and also set it alight.
Jennifer, 48, had noticed a ‘melting plastic smell’ when she turned the dryer off earlier in the day before heading out and leaving her two dogs, Milly and Penny, at home.
But when she returned, the mum-of-two spotted smoke trickling out the dryer and opened the door to find flames inside.
She told the Record: “When I’m going out, I always switch everything off but when I did that with the tumble dryer I noticed a melting plastic smell. I was away for about two hours and when I came back, the smell was worse.
“When I went upstairs, there was smoke trickling from the dryer door so I immediately unplugged it all and opened the door. Steam came pouring out so I shut it and ran downstairs to get the fire extinguisher.
“I called my neighbour Gary Armstrong so he straight away and when he opened the door, the clothes were actually on fire.
“The room filled with smoke so Gary opened the window and started throwing them out, but I had washing on the line and the next thing we realised, the clothes outside had caught fire too.
"We called the fire brigade and when they arrived they said Gary throwing the clothes out the window had saved the house because it would have just gone up in flames.”
Food truck owner Jennifer has now issued a warning to all householders to ensure electrical items are turned off and unplugged before leaving their home.
She added: “I feel quite emotional and I keep welling up a wee bit because it just all happened so quickly. It could have been a lot worse if I’d been out for longer, or if it happened while I was asleep in the room next door.
“Since this happened so many people have said they go out and leave the washing machine and tumble dryer on. I’m pleading with everyone to please stop doing that because you just don’t know what might happen.”
A Scottish Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said: "We were alerted at 3.51pm on Sunday, 23 April, to reports of a dwelling fire in Prestonpanns.
"Operations Control mobilised two fire appliances to the town's Inchview, where firefighters extinguished a fire which had taken hold of a household appliance.
"Crews left the scene after working to make the area safe. One casualty was assessed at the scene by the Scottish Ambulance Service but did not require to attend hospital."
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