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Family evacuated and bedroom destroyed due to blaze sparked by mobile phone

A blaze caused by a mobile phone charger ripped through the bedroom of a home.

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Firefighters were called to the property in Tallpines, Wildwood, Stafford.

The fire was caused after a newly purchased charger was left plugged in. A bang upstairs alerted three adults, who were downstairs at the time, to the fire.

One of the men rescued his eight-year-old sister from another upstairs bedroom before the family evacuated the property.

The family was unable to return to the house after the blaze on Tuesday night, which caused severe fire damage to the bedroom where the charger was and heavy smoke logging to the rest of the first floor.

It has sparked a warning from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service about buying unbranded phone chargers.

Station manager Neil Burton said: "We believe this fire could have been developing for up to an hour before the family was alerted to it.

"They didn't have smoke alarms so they were extremely lucky that they heard the bang alerting them to the fire. Had they been asleep at the time we may have been reporting a very different set of circumstances.

"Non genuine chargers are popular because they are often cheaper than genuine chargers, however what many people don't realise is the risks.

"We'd urge people to only purchase and use genuine chargers and only plug them in when they are in use."

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