Lives are being put at risk by fires fuelled by unsafe fridge freezers, London Fire Brigade (LFB) has warned.

Every week there is at least one fridge freezer fire in London and there have been seven deaths and 71 serious injuries since 2010. 

The Brigade has accused manufacturers of "dragging their heels" on insulating the hardware products with fireproof materials as many still contain large amounts of plastic and highly flammable insulation. 

For more than three-and-a-half years the Brigade has been lobbying the industry, but a spokesman for the Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances told the BBC changes to international safety standards "take time". 

LFB Deputy Commissioner Rita Dexter, said: "Every home has a fridge or freezer and the chances are it will be plugged in and working safely for years but it is no exaggeration to say that they are potentially the most dangerous household appliances if they are involved in a fire.

"They contain large amounts of highly flammable foam insulation, often only protected by a thin plastic covering.

"This can be a recipe for disaster if a fault occurs or if a fire spreads from somewhere else to the fridge or freezer.

"They are also one of the few electrical items in your home to be always left on and these fires pose an even greater risk if they start when people are sleeping.

"Putting a simple non-combustible or fire retardant covering at the back of appliances is a relatively simple change that manufacturers can make and one that we believe would reduce the number of injuries, and potentially deaths, caused by fires involving fridges and freezers."

The Brigade has uploaded footage which shows a fridge freezer becoming completely alight in less than 90 seconds.