ECHO INVESTIGATES: Fire risk of children's Hallowe'en costumes on sale in Dorset

An experiment conducted by the Echo in conjunction with Dorset Fire and Rescue Service reveals five out of six costumes bought for children aged under seven from shops in Weymouth ignited within five seconds.

Out of the six costumes, three, which were bought from retail giants Asda, Morrisons and Poundland, were engulfed in flames and destroyed within two minutes.

Three of the other costumes, bought from local retailers, ignited immediately before they self-extinguished within 20 seconds.

Children’s costumes and fancy dress items are classed as toys and therefore do not have to meet as rigorous standards as normal clothes. Now, the assistant chief fire officer at DFRS has called for tougher regulations and sanctions on producers of children’s costumes to stop them from catching fire so easily.

The issue of the flammable nature of children’s Hallowe'en costumes was thrust into the national spotlight after Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman’s daughter suffered serious burns after her costume caught fire when she attended a friend’s party last year.

The Echo bought six costumes from six local stores: A £10 ‘Little Green Witch’ costume from Morrisons, an £8 ‘Little Devil’ costume from Asda, a £9.99 Screamer Ghost costume from Bastins, a £2.99 Wizard’s Robe from Toymaster, a £6.99 Witch’s Dress and £2.99 Witch’s Hat from Tom and Erin’s Gift Shop and a Slasher T-shirt, rubber mask and Horror Bandages from Poundland, costing £3.

In a controlled environment at the Dorchester Fire Tower, Seth Why, technical safety manager from DFRS, lit a match and held it to the bottom of every costume, to try and mirror a costume hanging over a naked flame.

The Little Green Witch costume from Morrisons ignited within three seconds, and burnt rapidly. It took just 90 seconds until the whole dress was ablaze and destroyed.

Asda’s Little Devil costume also performed badly, igniting after four seconds with the fire creeping up the costume, before it was extinguished at two minutes and 41 seconds completely destroyed.

The bandages from Poundland were burnt and destroyed within 19 seconds. The T-shirt and mask ignited after five seconds, before ruining the t-shirt and melting the face mask in two minutes.

The three costumes bought from the three local stores all did well in the test.

The Screamer Ghost costume from Bastins self extinguished after four seconds, the Wizard’s robe from Toymaster self-extinguished after 10 seconds and the witch’s dress from Tom and Erin’s Gift shop self-extinguished after 20 seconds.

However, the witch’s hat from the same shop burnt for two minutes 31 seconds, causing 50 per cent damage.

Speaking after the experiment, Ben Ansell, assistant chief fire officer at DFRS, said: “We have not been necessarily surprised but we are quite concerned at the speed of which some of them have caught fire and that the fire has developed quite rapidly.

“First and foremost we want people to enjoy themselves and to celebrate, but to do so safely. This isn’t just about Halloween, it’s about the broader use of these sort of clothes.

“These clothes at the moment in this country are tested to a standard, a European standard, that is for the purposes of toys, these garments are currently classified as toys. That EU standard is not as robust as we would like to see it for garments.

“Nationally, there’s a campaign co-ordinated by the Chief Fire Officer’s Association and trading standards is looking at this at a national level.

“We are of the opinion that these tests need to be more robust, so they can give parents the confidence the clothes they are buying for their children are suitable for the use they are being put to.”

Retailers say costumes pass EU regulations

REPRESENTATIVES from the stores from which the costumes were bought said that the garments had been tested to EU standards.

According to the current laws and regulations, children's fancy dress costumes must comply with the EN 71-2 European Safety Standard. This means that if the fire burns slower than 30mm a second, it passes.

The standard does not require that the fabric doesn not burn. It should also have a "warning: Keep away from fire" label, and have a CE mark.

Nick Hopkins, managing director of Bastins, and retailer of the Ghost Screamer costume which performed well in the tests, said: “I’m definitely pleased that it stood up to tests. I know there are a lot of issues about costumes in general, and I definitely think the regulations should be tougher.

“When you are wearing it on your body that could cause a lot of damage, especially at Halloween when there are a lot of naked flames anyway, it can easily catch fire.

“We deal with a lot of suppliers, and as part of our buying process we do like to check that we are buying clothes that have been tested. At the moment those regulations are not where they should be, and it’s down to the authorities to sort that.”

Pete Healey, from Toymaster, added: “We are very happy that the costumes we sell passed the tests. First and foremost it’s about the safety of the children and we do try and deal with suppliers that we know adhere to the CE mark by EU standards.

“We try to offer good value for money and good quality, but it’s about the children’s safety, and we do also completely support the view of Dorset Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) that it needs tougher regulations.”

Tom Steadman, joint owner of Tom and Erins Gift Shop, said: “We are pleased that the costumes passed the test.

“We use three or four national suppliers that we know fully test their costumes. We make all the relevant checks because we don’t want a tragic accident to happen.

“We support DFRS in its view that there needs to be tougher regulations, and although we are a small company that would find it almost impossible to make any difference, we definitely support it.”

A spokesman for Poundland said: “We can confirm that all our Halloween costume products are fully tested and safe for use as authorised by the British Standard BS EN 71 regulation.”

A Morrisons spokesperson said: “We take the safety of children extremely seriously and all of our Hallowe’en costumes comply with the toy safety standard and have also been tested to nightwear flammability standards. Over the past year we have rigorously tested every costume available in our stores to improve safety. We insist that our costumes pass legal safety tests at least twice before they are put on sale and any costumes that don’t meet this requirement are destroyed.”

Asda did not respond to the Echo's request for a comment.

The results: Assessed by Dorset Fire and Rescue Service

• Morrisons green witch costume, £10

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 3

Continues to burn? Yes

Molten drips? Yes

Smoke? Yes

Time that burning was at its worst ­—
1 min 25 sec

• Asda red little devil costume, £8

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 4

Continues to burn? Yes

Molten drips? Yes

Smoke? Yes

Time until burning was at its worst ­—
1 min 47 sec

• Bastins Weymouth screamer ghost costume, £9.99

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 3

Continues to burn? No

Molten drips? No Smoke? Yes (minimal)

Time until burning was at its worst ­—
4 min, self-extinguished

• Tom and Erin’s witch cloak, £9.98

Easily ignite? No

Seconds to ignition ­— 10

Continue to burn? No

Molten drips? No Smoke? Yes (minimal)

Time until burning was at its worst ­—
20 secs

• Tom and Erin’s witch hat (came with cloak)

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 5

Continues to burn? Yes Smoke? Yes (toxic)

Time until burning was at its worst ­— 30 secs, self-extinguished at 2 mins 31 secs

• Toymaster, Wizard robe, £2.99

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 5

Continue to burn? No

Molten drips? Yes Smoke? Yes

Time until burning was at its worst ­—
10 secs, self-extinguished

• Poundland T-shirt and mask, £2

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 5

Continue to burn? Yes

Molten drips? Yes Smoke? Yes

Time until burning was at its worst ­— 59 secs, self-extinguished at 2 mins 2 secs

• Poundland horror bandages, £

Easily ignite? Yes

Seconds to ignition ­— 1

Continue to burn? Yes

Molten drips? No Smoke? Yes

Time until burning was at its worst ­— 5 secs. Totally burned away within 19 secs