Father's horror at explosion while toddler watched her popcorn cook

Dad left horrified after his new microwave exploded while his toddler watched her popcorn cook.

The Daily Mail today shared a terrifying story after a young father was horrified when his brand new $99 Aldi microwave exploded and sent shards of glass flying, narrowly missing his one-year-old daughter.

Mitchell Pritchard, 24, from Bathurst in NSW’s central west, was cooking popcorn at home with his partner and young daughter last weekend.

‘I put the popcorn in and picked up my daughter because she wanted to have a look,’ Mr Pritchard told Yahoo 7.

‘With about ten seconds to go, I put her down and just before the timer ended there was this huge bang, so I leaned forward to see what had happened.’

To his horror, something had caused the microwave to blow up internally, forcing the door to swing open and smash into his forehead.

Mr Pritchard said that had his head not gotten in the way, he and his daughter could have been struck with pieces of broken glass and suffered serious injuries.

‘The explosion sounded like a gunshot, my daughter was screaming her head off and I had to calm her down,’ he told Yahoo 7.

Inside the microwave, the turntable plate and bowl holding the dried corn he had been using to make popcorn had both been broken into tiny pieces.

‘I quickly unplugged it and got the vacuum and sucked up all the glass and ceramic off the floor so the kids and the dogs didn’t walk over it,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.

He said he was using a microwave-safe bowl that he had used to make popcorn the same way countless times with his old microwave.

He took photos of the faulty microwave and returned it to Aldi the next day, where a manager was quick to give him a refund and begin a formal investigation.

microwave

‘Aldi were very nice about it all and I will continue to shop there for groceries but not white or electrical goods,’ Mr Pritchard added.

A spokeswoman for Aldi told Daily Mail Australia the discount supermarket was ‘understandably concerned’ when Mr Pritchard returned the discount buy microwave.

‘We can confirm that this is an isolated incident and we will not be recalling the product,’ she said in a statement.

‘All customers that have purchased the product can be confident to continue use.’

How scary! Pays to be extra careful with little ones around appliances. That is certainly not something you ever expect to happen!

Share your comments below.

Via Daily Mail

Image via Getty

20 Comments

- - mom160421 said
  - 04 Sep 2017
    1:30 pm
Wow, this is scary. I don’t use a microwave as I have always been wary of them.

- - nealsq said
  - 04 Sep 2017
    12:55 pm
if I had this microwave I would be returning it regardless of a recall not being issued

- - ella12 said
  - 04 Sep 2017
    12:15 pm
This is just terrifying, I am so sorry to hear what this family went through.

- - Nas01 said
  - 04 Sep 2017
    9:08 am
Oh no this could have been so much worse. Thank goodness they werent seriously injured.

- - mum4107 said
  - 04 Sep 2017
    3:31 am
This is very scary and could have ended very badly.
I hope Aldii have had the microwave examined to see what caused the explosion

- - youngoldlady said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    5:24 pm
This maybe a once off thing, young children should be kept away from this types of appliances,

- - mom94125 said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    3:39 pm
i am sure that this product will get recalled soon but hopefully it won’t be too late for someone. this is super dangerous and i won’t be buying one that is for sure. Such a shame that this fault wasn’t picked up on before it went out into the market place. I wonder how many people already have one in their homes

- - mom183717 said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    1:14 pm
not surprised at this article

- - mom93821 said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    9:30 am
What a dreadful thing to occur. How do they know it is an isolated incident? I always stay well away from microwaves when they are cooking food.

- - Ellen said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    8:31 am
How scary !! Hope your head is alright Mitchell and your daughter hasn’t a permanent fear for microwaves !

- - mom241861 said
  - 02 Sep 2017
    6:33 am
Hope poor little one recovers well. Hope scaring is unnoticeable X xxplease be careful companies on what you sell.

- - BellaB said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    9:42 pm
Scary, but it does sound like a genuine one off accident.

- - june11 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    9:16 pm
I don’t know manufactures electrical and whitegoods for Aldi. For other supermarkets and department stores “generic” products are made by major manufacturers and “generic” brand name put on them. This applies to any product with “generic” brand label on it, including food.

- - mom206279 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    7:53 pm
How can they not recall it? What if there are more out there with the same fault and it kills someone? Its way to big a risk to take!

- - taynik46 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    7:27 pm
wow that is one explosion alright, so lucky in a sense that it hit is head and closed back on it’s self rather than damaging him and his family with glass and ceramic shards

- - mom112217 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    5:35 pm
Very lucky they didn’t get hurt and do not buy an Aldi microwave!

- - mom90758 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    3:16 pm
Better be careful with electrical appliances and just buy good quality ones.

- - mom101628 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    3:04 pm
Very frightening for those concerned.

- - Haylz89 said
  - 01 Sep 2017
    2:40 pm
How scary! I always make my kids stand away from the microwave as I’ve always been paranoid about this happening!
- mom93821 replied
  
  03 Sep 2017 , 6:23 am
  Me too! I have previously read warnings about staying away from appliances with glass.