An Australian man was critically injured after a robot vacuum cleaner caught fire in his home.
The family of Lachie Perrem, from Perth, said their lives had been "turned upside down" after the serious incident left him with burns to 75% of his body.
The fire, which broke out last Thursday at Perrem's home in the northeastern Perth suburb of Brabham, was caused by "a fault in a robotic vacuum cleaner," according to investigators from the local Department of Fire and Emergency Services.
The exact model of the device has not yet been made public, but such appliances are generally powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Authorities confirmed that an emergency call was received from the home at around 5 p.m., and four fire crews were sent to the scene.
The robot vacuum was among several items seized from the home and is now being examined by experts from the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety. However, contrary to the initial report by the fire service, the department warned that it was "too early to draw any conclusions about the cause or origin of the fire," saying investigators were examining a range of factors to determine where the blaze began.
"Lachie faces a very long road ahead, including multiple surgeries, extensive medical treatment, rehabilitation and months of recovery," his mother, Fiona Perrem, wrote on social media. "Our family has been turned upside down after my beloved son was critically injured in a tragic explosion at his home. The explosion has left Lachie, his fiancée and their housemates without a home. Alongside the long road to recovery, they are now facing the heartbreaking task of rebuilding their lives from scratch."
Perrem's fiancée, Bri Thompson, also shared her pain on social media, writing that the past few days had been "completely unimaginable. Our entire life has changed in a matter of moments, and everything feels intense and overwhelmingly heavy. My heart is completely shattered," she wrote.
She added that Lachie was "genuinely the most giving person there is, always the first to put his hand up and help, and never expects anything in return."
A spokesperson for local health services confirmed that Perrem remained in critical condition. A later statement from the family said he was in an induced coma following "catastrophic burn injuries. While we are holding on to hope, his condition remains critical and it is too early to know what the medical outlook will be or what his recovery journey will look like," the family said. "We are taking each day as it comes under the guidance of the medical team caring for him."
The family added that Lachie had always lived by the values of "generosity, looking after others and care," and had co-founded the social initiative The Tradie Vault, which seeks to build a community around mutual support among tradespeople.
The family said that while they understood the "significant public interest" in the story, they did not wish to be interviewed and asked for their privacy to be respected.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the country's top product safety regulator, said it generally does not comment on complaints or reports it receives. "If a business identifies that a product it supplies is unsafe, it should follow the guidelines for conducting a voluntary recall and report it," the commission said.
No voluntary recalls of robot vacuum cleaners have been listed on the organization's product safety website since the accident.
