An emergency services group has urged community members to buy "only the latest models of hotplates" after a mass pre-Pesach inspection found that close on 40 per cent were a fire hazard.

British Friends of Zaka recruited firemen and electricians to examine 1,150 hotplates in London and Essex homes in the wake of the death of seven children in a Brooklyn fire ignited by a faulty hotplate last week.

They found one in four of the appliances inspected in Golders Green, Edgware, Borehamwood and Chigwell "unfit for use. They could have caused a potentially fatal fire". Others required "immediate attention". Issues ranged from broken plugs to burnt-out and singed wiring.

Electrician Dov Jacobs urged people to purchase only the latest models, where the electrics were inside the case, or in an attached metal case.

Zaka's David Rose added: "We saw dozens of accidents waiting to happen, accidents that could so easily have led to tragic results."