CORNWALL Trading Standards and Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service are warning parents and carers to be careful about the costumes they dress their children in this Hallowe’en after all the fancy dress costumes they recently tested burned and melted in less than two minutes.

Officers from the two services tested five locally-bought outfits in a controlled environment. Two of the outfits — typical pretty dresses with billowing net and polyester fabrics, layers and trailing fabric — burned in just two minutes, with a black polyester hat with green artificial polyester hair burning in just seconds.

The two fancy dress outfits for boys, a bat costume and a knight, both lit easily then burned and melted in less than two minutes.

Most distressing of all for officers was an orange-striped, cotton pumpkin-style outfit for an 18 to 24-month-old baby, which also burned within seconds. Officers said at this age babies were curious, crawling around and investigating and the speed at which the outfit was engulfed in flames was ‘horrifying’.

Both services are warning parents and carers to only buy costumes from reputable sources that are manufactured to a high safety standard. Most outfits are currently tested to CE toy product safety standards. Choose well-fitting costumes in thicker materials and check for ‘flame resistant’ labels that are less likely to ignite, and extinguish more quickly. Warning labels on costumes and props give important advice to read before you buy.

Geoff Brown, Cornwall Council cabinet member for communities, said: ‘We want to encourage all parents and carers to dress their children safely this Hallowe’en. You can view the results of our tests on these fancy dress costumes on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cornwallbusinessconsumersupport.’

Watch manager Andy Jones added: ‘Please supervise your children at all times as lanterns, candles, tea-lights in pumpkins and sparklers can all be lethal to children. We would advise using torches or glow sticks instead.

‘If a fire does occur then stop, put your hands over your face, drop and roll to extinguish the flames. If you are going out trick or treating consider trimming outerwear, costumes and props with visible reflective tape so children can be seen as the nights draw in.’