"Our vacuum's lithium battery exploded - we could have died in the fire"

A family suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage to their home in a terrifying fire allegedly caused by - a vacuum cleaner.

Denise Graovac's 24-year-old daughter Sophie, who has autism, was home alone earlier this month (November 18) when she heard an "explosion".

She rushed to the garage at the home in Thames Ditton, Surrey to see what was happening - and found there were "flames and smoke everywhere".

Sophie immediately dialled 999 and the local fire brigade arrived - but not before the fire wreaked catastrophic damage.

Denise, who is retired, claims firefighters informed her that the re-chargeable lithium battery in her handheld vacuum had likely exploded.