Dad’s warning after Christmas present for his son burnt down home | UK News

A dad who bought his son an e-bike for Christmas ‘was left with nothing’ after the battery set his house on fire, leaving the family minutes to make it out alive.

Andrew Beaton suffered burns to his body after the battery inside an e-bike he gifted his 12-year-old son Andy ‘exploded like fireworks’.

It took just five minutes for the house to be set completely alight, after the bike, which he bought for £600 online, set the house’s stairs on fire six months later.

‘If it wasn’t for my other son Connor going downstairs at 4am to get a drink of water I don’t we would all be here now,’ Mr Beaton said.

‘I was frantically woken up by him after he spotted the bike catching on fire, I went to throw it outside but instead all the batteries fell out onto the floor.

‘It sounded like rockets were going off, and my feet and face were completely blistered because they exploded right onto me.’

Mr Beaton desperately tried to pour water over the stairs after he thought his wife, Brenda, and daughter Neave, 24, were still trapped in their bedrooms.

But thankfully they managed to escape the burning property before Mr Beaton risked going to get them himself.

‘I was so relieved to hear them tapping behind me letting me know they got out,’ the HGV driver said.

‘By some miracle Andy was out that night so he never even saw the fire.’

Neave needed to stay in hospital for a few days due to smoke inhalation and has since recovered.

But the entire family are still suffering with the trauma of witnessing the fire and only having the pyjamas they fled the home in left.

‘We have all had to have psychological treatment,’ Mr Beaton said.

‘Both of my older children are suffering with post traumatic stress disorder – they still refuse to sleep upstairs’.

Despite this, the family consider themselves lucky, as just one month after their fire, a mum and her two children were killed in a house fire also caused by an e-bike battery.

‘We just consider ourselves lucky to all be here,’ Mr Beaton said. ‘When we found out a family had been killed in a fire just weeks after, it was all very upsetting.’

The family are now preparing rebuild their home after staying with Mrs Beaton’s mum for half a year – but it’ll cost them around £60,000.

‘We lost absolutely everything, nothing could be salvaged. We need new beds, sofas, TVs,’ Mr Beaton said.

‘I added it all up to be around £60,000, but that is nothing of the sentimental value of things we lost.’

Jewellery left to Neave from Mr Beaton’s own parents who have both died were destroyed.

There are also no family photos left, including events like christenings and weddings.

Now Mr Beaton is urging people to make sure they buy any electricals from reutable sellers, otherwise more homes will continue to be destroyed.

‘There needs to be more regulation over the selling of these batteries – I actually bought the e-bike to stop my son from using his e-scooter which I thought was too dangerous,’ he said.

‘With the cost of living still squeezing households, more people are going to choose to buy cheaper electrical equipment, which will just lead to more fires.’

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