Wall heater sets baby's room on fire

The wall heater which caught fire in this Te Puke baby's room. Photo / supplied

An unusual wall heater has sparked concerns with the Fire Service after it started a fire in a baby's bedroom in Te Puke home.

The wall heater caught fire, filling the room with smoke and igniting a nearby chest of drawers while the baby was sleeping in a cot on June 15.

The mother had left the baby at home with her teenage son in the house while she went to drop a child off at the school bus stop at the end of their long driveway.

She returned to find the fire and managed to extinguish it and move the baby to another room.

A woman and her baby were both treated for smoke inhalation.

The head the Fire Service's Research and Investigation Unit, Peter Wilding, said he and his team have never seen a heater like it and is concerned there may be more in use.

He described it as a paper thin "pretty butterfly-covered wall film heater" and appeared to work on the same principal as an electric blanket.

"What is quite significant is it was in a baby's bedroom ... by the look of the heater it is obviously it is going to be quite attractive as a decorative thing for that sort of arrangement," Mr Wilder said.

The heater was purchased through online auction site Trade Me, he said.

Mr Wilding said there was not enough of the wall film heater left to determine how it was made or what went wrong. He said the heater was marketed as having a life of 50,000 hours, however the owners believed it had done only a quarter of that.

He has alerted Energy Safety, who is working with Trade Me to identify the seller and other purchasers of the item.

Mr Wilding said anyone else who owns the heater should stop using them.

"While internet purchasing provides great opportunities for both sellers and buyers, people need to exercise particular caution when buying items that could expose themselves or their families to serious harm if they are faulty. Always be prepared to ask the seller if the product meets known and trusted safety standards."

He said people should check the product has common New Zealand and international standards, including NZS (New Zealand Standards), AS (Australian Standards), ISO (International Organization of Standardization), UL (Underwriters laboratories), BSI or BS (British Standards), EN (European Norms), and the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).

- Herald Online, Bay Of Plenty Times