Grenfell Tower fire: MP says public must be told to stop using Hotpoint model

The government should immediately tell consumers to stop using the Hotpoint fridge-freezer model identified as the initial cause of the Grenfell Tower fire, according to an MP whose west London constituency experienced a serious tower block fire in 2016.

In a letter to the business secretary, Greg Clark, the Labour MP Andy Slaughter said the government should update its advice as a matter of urgency until the precise reason the appliance caught fire is known.

Police confirmed on Friday that a Hotpoint FF175BP model started the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, where at least 79 people are feared to have been killed. The government ordered an examination of the fridge-freezer by technical experts to establish the cause of the blaze, but did not order a product recall and said there was no specific reason for consumers to switch off their fridge-freezers.

Slaughter said the government should learn from a serious fire in his constituency in 2016, when a faulty Indesit tumble dryer started a blaze in the Shepherds Court tower block in Shepherd’s Bush, west London. Residents escaped with minor injuries. Twenty fire engines and 120 firefighters attended the scene.

The Labour MP for Hammersmith said in the letter to Clark that Whirlpool – which owns both Hotpoint and Indesit brands – had “a poor history of fire safety”.

He wrote: “Since the Shepherds Court fire little has been done by either the manufacturer or your department to address the safety concerns it raised. There has been no recall of the defective machines and the advice that they were safe to use if attended was only changed in February this year after the threat of legal action.

“Despite parliamentary debates, meetings with ministers and extensive correspondence, your department ignored requests by myself and other MPs of all parties, as well as the London fire brigade, Which? and Electrical Safety First to recall these machines.

“Please do not let the same approach govern your response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy.”

As well as calling for broader steps to improve fire safety in fridge-freezers and white goods in general, Slaughter also asked Clark to clarify who was carrying out the tests on the Hotpoint fridge-freezer, when the results were expected, and whether there were other instances of fires occurring in this model.

The fault in the tumble dryer model had been well known before the Shepherd’s Bush fire, Slaughter said, with numerous but less severe fires reported.

Whirlpool has been replacing or repairing an estimated 3.8m potentially faulty dryers across the UK after identifying a fire risk safety defect in November 2015, caused when excess fluff touches the heating element. It did not issue a product recall, telling customers they could continue to use their tumble dryer while waiting for the modification, provided it was not left unattended.

However, it changed that advice in February this year, telling owners of the potentially dangerous machines to unplug the appliances and stop using them until they were repaired.

The fridge-freezer model that was the initial cause of the Grenfell Tower fire was manufactured between March 2006 and July 2009 and had not previously been recalled. Tests will be carried out to establish whether a product recall is necessary, the government said on Friday.

Hotpoint said a total of 64,000 units were made over the three years, and advised said customers who believed they own either the FF175BP or the FF175BG to contact the company on a freephone hotline or visit the website to register their details.

A spokesman for Hotpoint said on Tuesday its guidance was unchanged and that asking customers to register their details was “a precautionary measure”, allowing the company to reach as many people as possible should the guidance change.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said no specific fault had yet been identified in the Hotpoint FF175BP involved in the Grenfell Tower fire. She said the technical examination of the fridge-freezer was continuing and that at this stage, the government’s advice for consumers was unchanged.

She added: “The technical investigation is being carried out by both departmental and independent experts, working closely with the Metropolitan police to establish the cause of the fire. Hotpoint are also carrying out their own urgent tests.”