A LONG-STANDING market trader has moved to reassure customers about the safety of his stock.Last week The Evening Star reported how teenager Daniel Rix burnt his coat when a lighter ignited.

A LONG-STANDING market trader has moved to reassure customers about the safety of his stock.

Last week The Evening Star reported how teenager Daniel Rix burnt his coat when a lighter ignited.

But Garry Lyddiatt wanted to reassure customers the lighters on his stall were safe and he had never heard of an oil lighter exploding in more than nine years of running Ultimate Gifts.

He said: "For an oil lighter to ignite the lid needs to be open and force applied to the flint wheel to ignite a spark which lights the wick.

"Now the lid needs to stay open to allow oxygen to the flame, hence if the lid was closed the flame would extinguish itself.

"This is a total mystery to me as to how the flame ignited.

"Oil lighters, in my experience can't explode. We have been working here for nine years and I've never experienced it."

Following The Evening Star story, Mr Lyddiatt said he consulted suppliers to ensure there were no problems with any lighters sold at his stall.

And he discussed the matter with trading standards to get the best advice on the situation.

A trading standards spokesman told The Evening Star people should always be wary of shopping at stalls if they were unlikely to be there the following week.

And Mr Lyddiatt agreed, saying no stall would be allowed to trade on the Cornhill market if it was selling substandard goods.

He said: "We are a reputable business and have never missed a day's trading in more than nine years - three days a week, same place on the Cornhill.

"Often Ipswich market traders on Cornhill get mixed up with so-called Del Boy traders who trade the streets of Ipswich on trolleys. All traders who trade on Cornhill Market are reputable businesses and to be a trader on our market all traders have to be members of the market traders federation."