'A £13 TikTok heater nearly destroyed our home'

A mother-of-two has said her house was nearly burned down after a fire said to have been caused by a boot-warmer she bought on TikTok Shop.

Kaela Rigg, 46, from Rochdale, came home last week to find her Milne home "billowing with smoke" amid an electrical fire that had broken out in the garage.

It is understood the suspected cause of the fire was an electric boot warmer which Kaela said was purchased from a TikTok Shop seller. TikTok has now removed the product from sale while it investigates.

"It was terrifying," Kaela said. "We are so lucky to be alive. Ten minutes later and my whole house would have fully burnt down."

Kaela told BBC Manchester she bought the electric boot-warmer for her children's sports boots just under a year ago after seeing it advertised on her TikTok feed.

The product was described as a "portable quick-dry shoe dryer". It cost £13.85 without shipping and was advertised as having a "220 volt British plug".

"The advertisement for it sounded brilliant," Kaela recalled. "We've had it for 12 months and it has been brilliant.

"But if I'd have known what it was going to do I would've paid twice the amount [for a boot warmer] or just let the kids's rugby boots air-dry, even if it was smelly."

"I got out the car and I smelled burning," Kaela said. "I got to the door and realised it was coming from within our house, because the smell was so intense.

"You could just see this haze of like smoke in the house.

"My first thought was that my husband had left something on, maybe the log burner. But was a it was a really strange smell, electrical.

"I was absolutely terrified - scared to death."

She said she went in to rescue her dog, and could see smoke coming into the house from under the door leading to the garage.

Kaela said when she saw how much smoke was coming from under the door, she left the house and called the fire brigade straight away.

"Whatever was behind that door was far too intense for me to even dare touch it. And thank goodness I didn't, because if I'd have opened the door to the fire I could've been thrown back."

Kaela said firefighters arrived in under 10 minutes.

"Even a few minutes feels such a long time while you stand there and watch smoke billowing out of your house, you feel helpless," she said. "It's so terrifying."

After her experience, Kaela said she wanted to "raise awareness of the dangers of buying cheap electrical goods".

"After this happened to us I decided I had to talk about it, in case sharing our story saved just one person.

"But since posting about it I have actually had four other people online come forward to say they own the same product," she said.

Kaela - along with her husband and two children - have moved in with family.

"The whole house is smoke damaged and we are going to be out of it for at least 12 months," she said.

"But I'm lucky to just be here.

"I can't bear to think about if it had happened the night before when we were asleep with the children at home, or what would've happened to the dog if I'd have come home any later."

She added: "There are people out there who might not have a garage and will be keeping that device in the main home, and aren't insured, or haven't got anywhere else to live, and they'd be stuck in a hotel with nothing."

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service confirmed fire engines from Rochdale and Oldham fire station were called to a fire involving the garage of a detached house on Whitebeam Close, Oldham.

A TikTok spokesperson said: "We take the safety of our customers extremely seriously and we're concerned to hear about this incident.

"We have removed this product from our platform whilst we fully investigate this issue."

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