A Queensland woman has recounted the terrifying moment the home she shared with her partner was engulfed in flames after their Kmart air fryer suddenly exploded, leaving them homeless.
Lexi posted to TikTok that the appliance, which she had owned for three years, “was not in use or turned on” at the time it caught fire.
“My partner was in the house and escaped,” Lexi said in her video.
“We have no home now, and our stuff is damaged but he’s alive.”
Damage to the rental property was so bad that the couple were forced to leave just 72 hours after the incident and have been staying with friends.
“My partner was in the house at the time and he did what he could to try and stop the fire and then made the call to leave and call triple-0, and thank goodness he made that decision …” she said.
“It was less than a minute before he couldn’t see anything in the house and the floors were very slippery because of the ash, so you can see on the roof it’s very black – that’s on the whole front section of our house.
“The smoke has reached all the way back and is on every single thing, the ash is on everything in the back of the house.
“Everything is black.”
Lexi said she had owned the Kmart 5.3 litre air fryer, which is rated 4.9/5 stars from 133 reviews online, for several years without any issues.
“I had my air fryer for three years and nothing had happened until Thursday,” she said.
She said the incident had been an opportunity to remind and inform others of the importance of “proper fire protocol” should there be an electrical fire in the home.
Recounting the “trauma” she and her partner Max had endured from the accident, Lexi said he hadn’t “slept since that day”.
Lexi said the house was left in an uninhabitable condition, forcing her and Max to leave the property within 72 hours of the traumatic event.
They have been crashing with mates since, “relying solely on (their) friends’ good nature”.
“Get out of the house, your belongings, your stuff, is not as important as you are to your loved ones,” she said.
Kmart has been contacted for comment.
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