'Scrunched up' electric blanket sets bed on fire

A Rotorua mother is still coming to terms with what might have happened after an electric blanket caught fire while she and two children slept.

The woman, who would not be named, was sleeping with her seven-year-old daughter and six-year-old nephew when she woke to find the bottom of the bed on fire.

She "tossed" the two children into the hallway, calling out to her father who bundled up the burning bedding and threw it out the window.

The girl suffered minor burns to one foot. The bedroom was mainly smoke-damaged with some furniture and the bed damaged.

Firefighters said the electric blanket became scrunched up at the bottom of the bed, causing it to overheat and catch fire. The woman was not sure how the electric blanket had been turned on.

What had been on her mind "all the time" since the fire was how serious it could have been, she said.

She would not be replacing the electric blanket and urged others not to have them.

"I had no idea something like that could happen."

She also urged vigilance in maintaining smoke alarms, admitting one in the hallway outside her bedroom had not been in working order.

- NZPA (ROTORUA)