Brian Milligan of the BBC is reporting that some faulty Beko fridge freezers first started to catch fire back in 2007. The company was also warned it had a problem with its product last June by the London Fire Brigade, and then in November of last year a man died as a result of a fire started by a faulty Beko appliance.

So it makes you wonder why it took so long for the public to be made aware of the problem. Beko have said they have contacted 11,000 customers so far about the issue, but there is a reported 500,000 faulty units in circulation.

Another problem could be people may have sold on the fridge freezer since it was bought or might have moved. One of the biggest problems since the news first broke is the amount of people trying to get through to the helpline. Many of you have been contacting us and saying no matter what number you try, you are still unable to get through, and the website hasn’t always been available.

Reports of fires in other parts of the UK are now coming to light in areas such as Cheshire, Devon, and Surrey. An owner from Oxford was thankful the fire they experienced was in the daytime, and dreads to think what would have happened if they were in bed.

Adrian Horne from Devon told the BBC that his home was gutted by fire and his son had phoned him to say the “front room was on fire”, and had to be rescued by neighbors. Many owners who had an appliance start a fire are now even angrier after finding out that Beko already knew of the issue.

A woman in Crewe told of her son’s narrow escape after he was playing in front of the fridge freezer before going out, and ten minutes later it burst into flames. This was back in 2007 and she is angry that it took four years before anything was done about the faults. We recently learned the company asked a recall website to remove its listing of the fault back in April.

Beko are still saying the risk to customers is extremely low, and to continue using them unless they notice anything unusual. You can check to see if your Beko product is part of the models affected by the fault here. The news doesn’t get any better for Beko as more information comes to light, and consumers who have been trying to get their product fixed have had to endure some stressful times.

This news will further anger customers of the company who are still attempting to book an engineer’s visit to have their fridge freezer fixed. We continue to get readers contacting us saying the phone line is constantly engaged, and the Beko website is still having issues down to the amount of traffic it’s getting.

The RecallUK website states they were asked to remove the appliance from its site as Beko didn’t consider it as a recall, and the fact they were repairing and fixing the product. But the question is why did they wait this long before making the news public? The issue first came to light last year, and even if only one fridge freezer caught fire surely that is enough to alert owners there might be a problem.

RecallUK have put the Beko fridge freezer back on to its site because of the recent publicity, and have included all the model numbers and how to find out if your device is part of the recall. The serial number is located inside the fridge compartment with ten or twelve numbers.

If your unit has a serial number beginning 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, and 06 it is one of the faulty models. Hopefully there will be no more fires started with these faulty appliances, but for those of you still trying to get through to the company it’s not a good situation to be in. Deciding if you turn the unit off or not cannot be easy.

The company said yesterday they had increased the amount of staff on the helpline, and extended the hours. But many people were still complaining of no answer last night. Let us know if you get through today, and your thoughts on this latest news.

Since the story first broke yesterday thousands of worried customers have been trying to contact Beko about the problem. But according to Alistair Potter of the Metro hundreds of customers have not been able to get through.

Customers were promised to be able to book an engineer visit for the problem to be rectified, but many have not been successful in trying. One Metro reader said he tried to contact Beko on two different numbers and an email address, but has not managed to speak to anyone about the problem. This has left him increasingly concerned, as he has his family and children to think about.

The problem concerns around 500,000 faulty units where water can leak into the defrost timer switch in the fridge freezer. This can then result in an electrical fire and with some of the materials of the unit will be highly toxic.

It is obvious that the company has been overwhelmed with the amount of people trying to ring the helpline, and the company’s website struggled at times yesterday. Many of our readers have been trying to get through since first thing yesterday without any luck.

People have said they were going to switch the appliance off before going to work, and one person was due to go on holiday and was wondering what to do. A spokesperson for the company has said it had tripled staff in the last 24 hours to try and deal with all the enquires. They were also going to keep the call centers open between 7am and 11pm during the week, and have extra hours at the weekend.

There have been customers who don’t have an affected model ringing the helpline though taking up valuable time. The company has also said it has already repaired 11,000 units and contacted 90,000 customers about the problem.

Beko have reassured customers they can expect to have an appointment within a few days, and it only takes around 30 minutes to remedy the problem. The dedicated Beko helpline is 0800 0094837, and if you purchased your Beko fridge freezer via Comet you can ring the retailer direct on 0800 7837892 for an appointment.

Have you managed to book an appointment for your Beko appliance yet?

The problem has come to light after a series of fires with twenty in London alone since 2008, and according to an article on Mail online a recent tower block fire was blamed on a fridge freezer made by Beko. The company is the UKs biggest refrigeration brand, and around a half of a million faulty appliances is believed to be in UK homes.

A recent fire in south-east London was originally thought to be started by lightning, but after investigations by the fire brigade the cause was found to be the Beko fridge freezer. Now fire chiefs are asking consumers to check to see if their model is affected, and the models in question were made between January 200 and October 2006.

The fires that the appliances have been the cause of have resulted in fifteen injuries and tragically one death. Steve Turk Assistant Commissioner for Fire Safety Regulation said that all fires can be lethal, but ones that involve any type of fridge freezer are far worse as they grow rapidly and large amounts of toxic smoke are produced.

Investigators had to work for a long time to be certain the fires were caused by the Beko appliances, and after establishing the cause worked closely with Beko. The problem starts when water enters the defrost timer switch in the fridge freezer. This can cause an electrical fault that results plastic components and other flammable insulation catching fire.

A spokesman for the company said that it was confirmed in December 2010 that some models may have a fault and overheat. They said they have contacted retailers to try and find customers who own the affected models. Thing is if they knew of the problem over six months ago why wait this long to make it public?

We have managed to source the model numbers that are affected which are; CA 5411 FFS/FFW/FFX, CA 7014 FFX, CA 7015 FFW/FFS/FFX, CDA 539 FS/FW/FX, CDA 543 FS/FW/FX, CDA 645 FW, CDA 647 FS/FW, CDA 648 FS/FW, CDA 653 FS/FW/FX, CDA 659 FS, CDA 751 FS/FX, CDA 752 FS/FW/FX, CS 460 FF/FFS/FFSD, CS 461 FFW/FFS, CSA 4706 FFX, and CSB 4606 FFSD/FFS/FFW. You can also find more information on the company’s website here.