- Lili Miller, who played Mary Shelley, warns against creating an electrical Frankenstein’s monster in your home.
- A faulty or misused tumble dryer can be more deadly than a Dalek – and a sonic screwdriver won’t save you.
Doctor Who actress Lili Miller stars in Electrical Safety First’s hero film for its annual awareness week, Electrical Fire Safety Week.
The film, Harmless, explores the relationship between two sisters and how the dangers in your home aren’t always obvious.
Lili Miller (Doctor Who, Gangs of London) who played Mary Shelley in the series 12 Doctor Who episode The Haunting of Villa Diodati, swaps the scary cybermen for less obvious dangers, like fires that can start from the appliances we use in our homes each day.
New analysis of government figures shows that blazes in England involving common household white goods occurred, on average, three times every day in the last year.
While accidental electrical fires involving white goods have steadily declined over the last four years — a trend welcomed by the charity — more than half of the 43 fire and rescue service regions in England saw an increase.
This alarming statistic highlights the ongoing need for greater awareness and action to prevent white goods fires, protect homes and save lives.
Lili Miller said: “I had no idea there were so many fires involving white goods each year, before taking on this project.
“It was great to work with Electrical Safety First to raise awareness of this issue – and how people can follow some simple steps to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
“One of the things I discovered when playing Mary Shelley in Doctor Who is her fascination with electricity, particularly phenomena like lightning. But people don’t realise they could create their own Frankenstein monster in their home with dangers like overloading extension leads, not registering their appliances, or not cleaning their tumble dryer’s lint filters. Their website - electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk - has a ton of advice that I found helpful. It’s easy to follow and completely free.”
Rory Carroll, Head of Communications for Electrical Safety First said: “With more than 1,000 accidental electrical fires involving common white goods occurring every year dishwashers can be just as frightening as Daleks, if things go wrong. We’re thrilled Lili has taken a brief break from the world of fighting Daleks to help us fight fires as part of our life saving national campaign.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Electrical Fire Safety Week takes place in the first week of February every year.
- Electrical Safety First is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to reducing fires, injuries and deaths caused by electricity in the home.
- Figures analysed by Electrical Safety First come from the Home Office Appliance Fire Dataset which can be found here. Filters used, as part of an internally agreed methodology, to accurately assess accidental electrical fires linked to white goods include; faulty appliances and leads, faulty fuel supplies, misuse of equipment or appliance and placing articles too close to heat. All incidents reflected in the numbers above are recorded as accidental whereby the source of ignition was deemed to be electrical.
- The term ‘white goods’ includes only the following appliances as part of the data analysed; tumble dryers, washing machines, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, washer/dryer combined.
- The figure of three fires a day is calculated by dividing the 1,140 accidental electrical fires involving white goods that occurred during the year 2023/24 by the 365 days of the year.