A FAMILY is fighting against time to find a home before Christmas after their home was damaged when their dishwater burst into flames and pumped noxious black smoke around the house.

Two weeks ago, Geraldine Whelan, was sitting in her living room in Lios Rua when her dishwater caught fire. She was alerted to the situation only by a dripping sound.

When she went to investigate, flames were coming out of true dishwasher and black smoke was filling the kitchen. Quickly, she turned off the power-point and alerted her daughter, Caoimhe, who was upstairs, to leave the house quick.

The fire brigade were called and were at the house in three minutes. “To me that seemed like a long time because everything was going in slow motion,” Geraldine told TraleeToday.ie.

Geraldine counts her blessings the incident happened at 12 noon. “To put it this way if it happened in the middle of the night, there was no getting out of the house alive. Someone is looking over us,”  she said.

Thankfully, the mother and daughter got out in time, but the dishwater caused untold damage to the house, gutting the kitchen and spreading thick black smoke around the house, staining the walls and upstairs.

The home which they have lived in since 2004, is now uninhabitable. Geraldine Whelan and her family are now looking at spending Christmas in a hotel if accommodation is not found soon.

Since breathing in the smoke, Geraldine has been on an inhaler, something she has never had to use in her life. “I can just smell smoke off me constantly, it’s horrible,” she said.

Engineers from the manufacturers of dishwasher, Whirlpool, have called to the to Lios Rua, to survey the damage.

Now, the search is on to find a home for Christmas. “At the end of the day no one wants to be homeless, but we’re alive and well,” said Geraldine.