An 11-year-old boy has been left feeling distressed and anxious after a Samsung tablet burnt a hole in his bed while he slept.
Callum Hewkin had taken the gadget into his room so he could watch a programme in bed and had fallen asleep with the device next to him.
His parents awoke the next morning to find his room full of smoke and a big burn mark where the youngster’s head had been.
Now his parents, Amy and Stewart Hewkin have spoken out about the terrifying ordeal, which fire crews said could have been fatal for the whole family.
Mrs Hewkin, 33, was woken by her son last Thursday morning, who believed his tablet was stuck to the bed, and with her husband, Mr Hewkin, 32, entered his room to discover the tablet – which was minutes away from catching fire.
The couple from Staffordshire said the tablet had left a melted hole in his bedding and mattress to the metal springs.
They highlighted they had no idea their son had snuck the four-year-old gadget into his room after they went to bed, leaving it on charge for up to nine hours, as they enforce a strict no electricals at night rule.
Callum’s parents had found that the tablet had burnt a hole in his bed – just inches away from where he had been sleeping
Assistant manager Mr Hewkin said: ‘The last thing anyone wants is to wake up and find their child seriously injured or dead because a tablet or phone has set fire in their room.
‘We feel like we’ve had a lucky escape – Callum’s life could have been at risk.
‘We had no idea he even had his tablet in his room, he had snuck it into bed with him because he wanted to watch something in bed.’
Mr Hewkin added that when he came downstairs in the morning he thought he could smell burning plastics, but put it down to the fact that the family lives so close to factories in the area.
‘I went into Callum’s room and there was a big burn mark right by where his head had been, and the room was full of white smoke.
‘We have no idea how he didn’t wake up but it goes to show how serious it could have been.
‘I was gobsmacked, I never thought it would happen to us or that something like that even could happen – you don’t expect an iPad or tablet to just start burning like that.’
Despite the heavy smoke in Callum’s room, his bedroom door had stopped any of the family’s smoke alarms from sounding, meaning they were not alerted to the smouldering tablet until he woke up.
