Scots man 'loses everything again' after second fire at council flat

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Scots man says he has "lost everything again" after his flat went on fire twice in two years, and claims it was caused by an electrical fault he reported to Fife Council five times.Stephen Harris had been out on November 29 before returning to his Dunfermline home to discover smoke pouring out of a bedroom socket with no sound coming from the fire alarm.The 36-year-old has now been waiting for two months for smoke damage to be cleaned in the Inchkeith Drive flat so he can get back into the property with his two dogs Willow and Buddy.Speaking to the Record, he said: "I had been out all day and when I got back the whole house was covered in smoke and there was no fire alarm going off."When I turned on the light switch the fire alarm started to go off and my downstairs neighbour phoned the fire brigade."There was smoke coming out of the plug socket in my bedroom and there was plastic next to it that caught fire and then spread to a bin."If the smoke alarm had been working then the damage wouldn't have been as bad as my neighbour would have phoned the fire brigade earlier."Stephen claims he told Fife Council of an issue with the electric system in his home after the fuse on two TVs and an Xbox blew while plugging them into a socket.

Another socket behind his washing machine also went on fire.But although two electricians from the local authority attended the property, Stephen believes the fault was not fixed and directly led to the fire.He added: "I kept complaining about dodgy electrics last year, I phoned around five times to report it."During the first fire two years ago I lost absolutely everything and now I've lost pretty much everything again because of the smoke damage."Scottish Fire and Rescue paperwork received by