My SmokeShutoff power strip can shut off the player and sound an alarm before all this damage.

By Dennis Smith, Burlington Post Staff

A woman and young daughter who climbed out a bedroom window were lucky to escape a blaze on Friday night, says Burlington fire prevention officer Ben Rotsma.

The pair had been asleep and there were no batteries in the smoke alarm inside the small, rented bungalow at 470 Brock Ave., he noted.

“The fire was in the living room and the bedroom is directly off the living room,” Rotsma said. “Fortunately, they were sleeping behind a closed bedroom door, which kept a substantial amount of smoke out and limited the spread of the fire. We’re quite fortunate that no one lost their life in that fire. Smoke can cause people to go unconscious.”

He said a malfunctioning DVD player is the suspected cause of the fire. Rotsma said the house sustained mainly smoke damage, with the total loss estimated at $15,000.

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Cause ruled accidental

MOSES LAKE - A weekend house fire on the edge of Moses Lake was ruled accidental and likely caused by an electrical problem involving a TV or DVD player.

Grant Fire District No. 5 firefighters were called at 5 p.m. Sunday to the two-bedroom home on Road 4 N.E., said Leonard Johnson, the district’s battalion chief.

No one was injured in the fire, Johnson noted.

The fire started in the front room where a small wooden entertainment center was sitting and didn’t spread to other areas of the house, said Bruce Gribble, Grant County’s chief deputy fire marshal.

The DVD player and entertainment center were destroyed, he said.

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Most entertainment centers already contain a power strip.  Mine would give an extra level of protection, shutting off any smoking component or the TV.

Toshiba Recalls AC Adapters sold with Portable DVD Players Due to Burn Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. Name of Product: Toshiba AC Adapters Sold with Portable DVD Players

Units: About 142,000

Distributor: Toshiba America Consumer Products LLC, of Wayne, N.J.

Hazard: The AC adapters can fail, causing the portable DVD player to overheat, posing a burn hazard to consumers.

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You trust your name-brand electronics manufacturers? I don’t.

Coby Recalls 12,000 DVD Players Due to Fire Hazard

Posted on Fri, 9 Nov 2007 08:44:54 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Coby electronics Corp. and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have announced a recall on 12,000 Coby portable DVD/CD/MP3 players. The recall says that these products could overheat leading to risk of fire.

Coby states that it has received three reports of the units overheating, one of which included minor property damage from fire. No injuries have been reported. This recall covers two different portable DVD/CD/MP3 players model numbers TF-DVD170 and TF-DVD176.
The TF-DVD170 is a 5-inch screen DVD/CD/MP3 player with a TV tuner and digital AM/FM tuner. The TF-DVD176 is a 5.6-inch DVD/CD/MP3 player with NTSC TV tuner. These products were sold at discount, electronics, music, and toy stores from $140 to $170. Coby says owners should contact them for a complete refund.

LINK

Staff Reports
Union Colony, Colorado
August 7, 2007

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Union Colony fire spokesman Dale Lyman said investigators found a DVD player had fallen off the back of the television set, then overheated, catching fire to the floor and other material in the area.

Damage was estimated at $20,000 to the structure and $10,000 to contents of the apartment.

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Most DVD players are plugged in through power strips anyway, along with the cable/sat receiver, the TV, stereo, etc. So why not use a power strip that cuts off power when it detects smoke?