Fire Safety Science Digital Archive

Fires caused by electrical blankets and bedwarmers increased more than eleven-fold between 1953 (when such fires were first recorded separately by the Joint Fire Research Organization) and 1960. This increase seems to be more than proportionate to the increase in the number of appliances at risk. This note deals with reports from Local Authority Fire Brigades of fires caused by electric blankets and bedwarmers, received as part of a general survey of all fires associated with electrical equipment between September 1957 and August 1958. In all, 329 reports of blanket and bedwarmer fires were received, including 12 fires in which 14 persons were injured, 5 of them fatally. The most common cause, accounting for 55% of all the fires, was reported as overheating not caused by overloading which suggests a need for more stringent safety measures.