This is a terrifying moment a woman's laptop suddenly caught fire in her home.

Claire Irvine, 46, was relaxing in the living room with her daughters when she heard a strange hissing sound coming from the kitchen.

Claire walked in to find thick smoke pouring out of her HP laptop, which had been left plugged in and open on the table after a day of use.

Claire quickly unplugged the machine and rushed it outside but the parts of the machine had already melted the table and tablecloth beneath it.

Claire, a paramedic from Hertford, Hertfordshire, UK, said: "It was so scary. "

"You don't expect something to just catch fire like that. "

"I'm a paramedic so I'm used to dealing with emergencies, but seeing smoke coming off my kitchen table with the kids there was a real shock. "

"I unplugged it and carried it straight outside. "

"Luckily it cooled down on its own."

Claire later took the damaged laptop to a local technician, who determined that one of its three internal batteries had exploded.

He was able to recover her data, including her university dissertation, but the process cost her nearly £300.

Claire said: "The local technician said there was no external cause. "

"It just spontaneously burst."

"I hadn't done anything to the laptop to cause it."

"Luckily, he managed to recover my degree work, which was all on there."

HP issued Claire a replacement laptop a month later.

But Claire claims the company has since gone silent after she submitted a £300 claim to cover data recovery and furniture repairs.

She said: "They were great to start with, really engaged and surprised by what happened. "

"But as soon as they got the laptop back, it's like they shut down completely. "

"Now they're just ignoring me and it's upsetting."

"I work for the NHS. I don't have money to waste. "

"Being fobbed off like this isn't right."