Irish girl burns down her family's phone charger

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An Irish man has spoken of his family's grief after a faulty phone charger for his daughter caused a fire that destroyed their home.

Freddy Walters said his family was about to go to bed when they heard a huge explosion.

It came from their eldest daughter's room, but she was in the basement, and she wasn't actually inside at the time of the explosion.

When the family rushed to the bedroom, the room was already on fire, and soon the entire house was on fire.

With Freddy and his youngest daughter in England at the time, his wife and two other daughters were lucky to escape the burning building.

Within minutes, the father said, the house caught fire. “My oldest daughter had just taken her phone from the charger and went down to get something to eat, my wife had just gone to bed and a minute or two later I heard a loud bang,” the father said.

"My middle daughter was in the back bedroom and she said she didn't know what had happened, then she looked in the front bedroom and said it was on fire, my wife got up from the bed and within two minutes the room was already on fire."

My wife tried to throw a wet towel on the fire but at this point the whole room was on fire.”

Mr Walters continued: "My wife was sobbing as she watched the whole house burn.

Fortunately, the fire service was very quick to get there, and they were there within eight minutes.

I don't know how to describe what happened, it's heartbreaking to think of the time and effort we put into the news of the house and how it was destroyed so quickly."  

Freddy said they were only able to salvage a small amount of their possessions from the house, and the process of restoring the house could take up to 12 months.

"We were able to salvage some things from the basement, but all the ceilings collapsed.

We're in another house now in town and just trying to put things in order.

There were a lot of people who donated clothes and furniture and Saint Vincent de Paul helped us get the beds and mattresses.”

A local community group has set up a GoFundMe page to help support the family and rebuild their home.

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