In having DREADFUL anxiety about ds's fan in his room.

[thighslapper]

He is 8 and last night he had his pal over for a sleep over.

He is in the loft bedroom, with fire doors and a electric smoke alarm right outside his door. Its SO hot up there at the moment and i dont want to leave his bedroom window open as he worries about burglers (no idea where this has come from, we have never spoken about burglers ever)

I suddenly got a terrible panic about the fan setting on fire. We have had it since his birth, is a large stand up one and its at the side of his room where the door is....the escape route in other words.

I couldnt sleep a wink all night.
Went up and checked on it about 50 times
Electrical fires are the main causes of house fires arent they?????

Please, slap me hard across the face with a fish or sumat....

does he have nothing else electrical allowed up there

if so, you are being daft as a brush cos one of those things could equally catch fire

once he is asleep, open the window

rocking in a corner.........

Get a new fan and use an RCD plug on it.

How about putting one of those safety window restricter things on his window - you know, the kind that allows it to be opened only a few inches. That will allow fresh air in (better than recycled stale air anyway) and may reassure your son re safety.

But why would his fan suddenly burst into fire? Do you have similar worries about other electrical goods? Fridges? Washing machines????

"electrical fault" is what they say when they don't know what caused it. It is actually very rare to see an electrical accessory catch fire, although they can smoke, scorch and char. Normal people notice the smell and do something about it. It is almost impossible to make a cable catch fire in a domestic installation.

IIRC most fires occur in houses of people who smoke. although chip pans (in the days before electric ones) used to start some nasty ones.

stranded, no i have a healthy relationship with all of my electrical appliances
see now you have a voice of good reason...why would a fan burst into flame???????

This anxiety came out of nowhere and lasted all night long, twas a loooong night.

Bonkers!!!

i always wondered about this and had the same problem with the fan in my boys room,i think its because its on all night,their quite powerful does that make a difference?

I thought you were going to say you were worried about a ceiling fan coming off and landing on him in his sleep because I would worry about this

I thought it was only the heating ones that were likely to be a fire hazard, what with the heating element too

How is a burglar going to get in via a loft window? Is there a logical way that can happen?

I honestly don't think a fan is likely to spontaneously combust. Now all you have to worry about is your ds slicing his finger off by poking it into the blades....
Have nice night

Is the fan on all night? We have a tower fan that has a timer and I can set it to anything up to three hours and it turns itself off. You could set it when he goes to bed and it would turn off once he is asleep.

I would say that if you're suddenly nervous it might be time to get a new one. It is 8 years old yes?

It was on all night last night as it was really hot.
Had the bugger for 8 years and this daft arse thought has never entered my head..till last night.

Feeling better though about it NOT bursting into flame due to lack of heating element etc etc...

thanks all xxxx

I always got a bit anxious when PFBs slept over. I still make sure the rooms that get slept in by others are ventilated/secure etc. I wonder why I never bother normally?

He loves home alone, thats the only time he has heard of burgler bless him!