Heaters 'cause thousands of fires'

9 October 2007

Standalone heating devices cause more than £3 million worth of damage to homes in the UK every year, an insurer has claimed.

Research conducted by Abbey found that 19.6 million adults use a heating appliance other than central heating to keep their bedroom warm during the winter months, with electric blankets and electric fires the most commonly used gadgets.

However, some of those people pay a high price for the extra warmth, as electric blankets alone cause 5,000 house fires a year and space heating appliances cause a further 1,600.

Prasad Shastri, head of insurance marketing at Abbey, understands why people feel the need to use additional heating sources during the winter, but warned: "It is important that they are checked prior to use to ensure that they are not faulty and that they are used correctly otherwise they could prove to be very dangerous."

Homeowners may find their central heating particularly useful in the next few months, as the Met Office recently predicted that the coming winter would be "noticeably colder" than the last.