Strictly Come Dancing presenter Claudia Winkleman has spoken for the first time about the serious burns her eight-year-old daughter Matilda suffered in a Halloween costume fire last year. The incident occurred when Matilda's witch costume brushed against a candle at a neighbour's house in London.
Describing the scene to BBC One's Watchdog programme, Winkleman said: 'We couldn't put her out. Her tights had melted into her skin.' She added: 'She went up, is the only way I know how to describe it. It was not like fire I had seen before.'
Matilda has since undergone several operations. Her surgeon, Jorge Leon-Vallapalos of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, is calling for tougher fire safety laws on fancy dress outfits, which are currently classed as toys rather than clothing. He described a 'mini epidemic' of paediatric burn injuries at certain times of the year.
Official statistics show that 94 people in England were admitted to hospital last year after their clothing ignited or melted, including 21 children under 18. Watchdog's investigation, to be aired on Thursday, will highlight the legal loophole and test the flammability of high street costumes, with 'shocking results'.
Winkleman, who missed part of the last series of Strictly Come Dancing after the accident, said: 'It's life-changing but not life defining. I would like parents to think about what they're going to put their kids in because I didn't, and it cost us.'
