"My vape exploded and set fire to my daughter's Christmas presents"

A woman's vape exploded and set her daughter's Christmas presents on fire. Kirsten Church, 21, was changing the batteries in her device when it exploded.

The rechargeable vape started sparking so Kirsten threw it into the air to avoid injury. The vape exploded multiple times and burned the floor, her wrist and ignited a box containing her daughter's Christmas presents.

The stay-at-home mum from Lifton, Devon, said: "As the batteries went in it started sparking and I knew what was happening. So I threw it into the air. It exploded in the air right next to me. I had to protect my face. It was so loud. It went 'BANG! BANG! BANG!' all across the floor. It kept exploding."

Kirsten ran downstairs, where her daughter Summer Church, two, and her mother Louise Church, 41, were watching TV, and called the fire brigade. Kirsten and her family were told to leave the house immediately and wait outside for the fire brigade to arrive.

In the meantime, Kirsten's partner Cameron Buckle, 21, ran upstairs and emptied the box that had caught fire - saving all the presents. He then threw the still-flaming box in the bath to avoid the fire from spreading.

Kirsten said: "He [Cameron] said the fire was up to his waist and that he could see the orange flickering on the wall. If it weren't for the bravery of Cameron all the presents would have been destroyed, he did [save Christmas]. Even if they hadn't been burned, the firemen would have sprayed the whole room and they would have been ruined."

The blaze also ignited Kirsten's mother's birthday present bag, which was destroyed. Thankfully, Kirsten was not injured severely and the fire had not spread by the time authorities arrived.

Kirsten added: "It was around that time she would have been in bed, thank god she wasn't. She was very scared of the noises, she kept asking to go back inside."