'Flames came out the tumble dryer' in flat fire that killed two

A man whose partner and friend were killed in a flat fire has told an inquest he saw flames coming out of a tumble dryer.

19-year-old Bernard Hender and 39-year-old Doug McTavish died following the blaze at the flat in Llanrwst in October 2014.

An inquest into their deaths, held at Abergele Town Hall, will examine whether the cause of the fire was a faulty Hotpoint tumble dryer.

50-year-old Garry Lloyd Jones, who lived with the two men but managed to escape the fire, told the hearing the tumble dryer had been switched off when he went to bed the night before.

Mr Lloyd Jones said on the evening of October 9th 2014, he and partner Mr Hender had eaten a meal at a restaurant. When they returned home, Mr McTavish was in bed.

He said he looked into the utility room of the flat and saw the tumble dryer with the machine door open and some towels from the restaurant hanging out of it.

But when he woke at 6am the following morning, he said the flat was filled with smoke.

Mr Lloyd Jones told the inquest he managed to crawl out of the flat and phone the emergency services from outside.

US firm Whirlpool, which is represented at the inquest, has warned owners to unplug their machines after a potential fire risk was identified in Hotpoint, Creda and Indesit models manufactured between 2004 and 2015.

Whirlpool's Dominic Adamson said an expert report showed coins, collar stiffeners, bits of plastic and lint were in the machine after the fire, but Mr Lloyd Jones said he used to remove the lint from the filter regularly.

Assistant coroner David Lewis said the hearing would try to establish whether the tumble dryer was the cause of the blaze.

The hearing is expected to last three days.