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My home became an electrical deathtrap
Mira Bar-Hillel and Jonathan Prynn12.03.08
A leading housebuilder has launched an investigation into how one of its homes was turned into a deathtrap by damaged electrical wiring.
Darren Korol suffered 230-volt shocks when he touched the cooker in his new £220,000 Barratt Homes flat in Crawley, West Sussex.
The 41-year-old print salesman's children suffered jolts from the bathroom taps.
An electrician later discovered that the fitter who installed the stove had screwed through a live cable. The error raises fresh safety fears over household appliances. About 20 people a year are killed by electrocution in the home.
Mr Korol said that at first he assumed static was the cause - but when he began using the gas hob he received shocks to his forehead from the cooker hood.
After one "massive jolt" while cleaning the hob, he phoned Barratt. The company sent an electrician-who discovered the damaged live cable. Because cooker hoods do not need to be earthed, the electric safety switch had not been tripped.
"This means that there were 230 volts of electricity running around my stainless steel cooker and, through the water pipe system, going through to the taps, creating a potential deathtrap," said Mr Korol, who moved into the flat earlier this month.
"I am still stunned by how serious this could have been, especially as I had my three children staying with me for the first weekend in my new flat. The Barratt electrician said this was not the first time something like this has happened.
"He said in some cases the Electrical Installation Certificate is issued before all the appliances have been installed and in his opinion a further certificate should be issued by the fitters following further safety checks."
Mr Korol said he received a phone call from a Barratt representative who apologised for the "inconvenience" and offered to install a dishwasher, extra tiling or kitchen cabinets as recompense.
Trevor Sawyer, managing director of Barratt Southern Counties, said: "Our electrician confirmed that the kitchen fitter had pierced the outer casing of the cable and that the hood had come into contact with the live wire.
" Our representative explained to Mr Korol that it was not something that we had come across before. We are undertaking our own investigation to ensure it does not occur again."
In 2004, Mary Wherry, daughter of former Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Tonge, died when she received a massive shock from a poorly installed dishwasher.
RULES FOR AVOIDING A SHOCK
Cooker hoods are rarely earthed because, like TVs, their wiring is normally double-insulated and so they are regarded as safer than most other appliances.
However, when they are exposed to a live electrical current, a person touching them can complete the circuit, causing electrocution.
New regulations this summer will require all new homes to be fitted with "residual current devices", a kind of supersensitive trip switch that will cut the power instantly when someone has received a shock.
They are aimed at making a major shock survivable because the current only flows for a very short space of time.
