Urgent warning issued after everyday household object explodes sparking huge fire

A family suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage to their home in a terrifying fire allegedly caused by a vacuum cleaner.

Denise Graovac said her 24-year-old daughter Sophie, who has autism, was home alone on November 18 when she heard an explosion.

She rushed to the garage of the property in Thames Ditton, Surrey, to see what was happening, only to find there were flames and smoke everywhere.

Sophie immediately dialled 999 and the local fire brigade arrived, but the blaze had already wreaked catastrophic damage.

Denise, who is retired, claims firefighters informed her that the re-chargeable lithium battery in her handheld vacuum had likely exploded.

The mother-of-three, 66, said: Its just so incredibly scary. People need to know they have ticking time bombs in their homes.

Ive had this vacuum for years and my daughter had used it earlier that day. There were no signs anything was wrong with it.

But now, our garage is completely destroyed. In it, our washing machine, our tumble dryer - my husbands computer equipment.

Denise Graovacs daughter Sophie (pictured together), who has autism, was home alone on November 18 when she heard an explosion 

The aftermath of the blaze which caused devastation to the familys garage 

Firefighters said the re-chargeable lithium battery in a handheld vacuum had likely exploded 

Weve been without heating and water for the past week week - just when its gotten really cold. And the soot damage has gone all through the house. 

The mother explained the garage is internal within the house so could have easily spread to the whole home. 

If we had been asleep? We could have lost our lives. We could have lost the whole home, she said. 

So it could have been worse. Thankfully, we are all okay and the fire was contained.

Denise and her family have lived in the home for 30 years, so would have been devastated to lose it.

She is now tasked with finding an emergency plumber and electrician to get things up and running again - and speaking to insurance about all the damage that has been caused.

Sophie immediately dialled 999 and the local fire brigade arrived, but the blaze had already wreaked catastrophic damage 

The aftermath of the fire in the familys garage in Thames Ditton, Surrey

The explosion caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to the home in a terrifying fire

The destroyed remains of the garage fire in Surrey, including a vacuum cleaner to the left 

I have no idea how long it will take to fix everything, she said.

But theres thousands of pounds worth of damage. We just had a new garage door. Theres all the computer stuff.

Its not just the fire that causes damage. Its the smoke and the soot and the water damage from putting out the fire.

Youre hearing about these batteries exploding all the time nowadays. Its worrying. People need to know they cant trust these things.