Woman almost killed entire family after burning home down while trying common hack
A woman who was trying a home hack is now warning others not to give it a go after her house accidentally burned down.
On 7 August, Simone Anderson was getting ready to go to bed for the night when she popped the dishwasher on and let it run.
The 29-year-old mother of two said it was part of her nightly routine to clean the dirty dishes of the day, leaving the family with clean cutlery come the morning.
However, within an hour of falling asleep on that August night the Kansas woman was woken up by the sound of the smoke alarm going off.
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At this point we'd remind you to get your smoke alarms checked and tested regularly, it might just save your life.
With the alarms blaring downstairs Simone's husband Paul went down to see what was going on and found their kitchen 'glowing orange' as it was engulfed in flames.
Getting the kids out as quickly as possible, the house was soon filled with smoke.
"He said there were flames coming out from below and beside the dishwasher. It was completely engulfed in flames," Simone said of the fearsome blaze that filled her home with smoke.
"It was way too big of a fire for him to put out himself, it was coming into the hallway.
"In a matter of two or three minutes, the whole house was completely full of smoke.
"We went outside and called the fire brigade. I tried to go back in and get my glasses but the inside was completely full of smoke. It filled up with smoke so fast."
Fire crews called in to tackle the blaze identified the culprit as a malfunctioning dishwasher, and sticking it on overnight to sleep through the cycle very nearly cost the family their lives.
Simone now knows why she was told 'don't use your appliances at night' and said that after speaking to the firefighters one of them catching fire was 'much more common than you think'.
With the kitchen destroyed and everything in the house covered in soot the place is 'completely unliveable' and will need some work to be repaired.
For now the Andersons are living in an Airbnb, and have set up a GoFundMe to cover the costs of things their insurance might not handle.
Paul wrote that he estimates they'll be out of their home for between three and six months.
Simone said: "As hard as it is to lose all our belongings - especially for my daughter as it was her birthday that day and she lost all her birthday goods - but the alternative would've been us not surviving.
"I'm very thankful we made it out, we could've easily died that day. I had no idea how fast smoke moves. We would've just slept right through it.
"I was in disbelief that this had happened. I say to others don't run appliances while you're sleeping or not at home because fires can happen.
"It's easy to think 'this won't happen to me, I don't want this to happen to anyone else'. I'm just thankful that we're here and we're safe."
Joe Harker