LINK
JACKSONVILLE, FL — A consumer warning: a report from firefighters says a popular air freshener sparked a fire inside a Westside home.
It’s not a small plug-in air freshener they’re talking about. Attorneys say it’s a Febreze Scentstories machine, about the size of a small toaster.
You pop in a plastic disc and press play, and the unit sends out one of five different scents. The disc rotates to send out a different scent every half-hour.
They’re popular in homes and dorms, but a JFRD report shows one of the machines was at the center of a Westside fire last week.
A cleanup crew was trying to wipe the stench of smoke out of that home Thursday afternoon. The scrubbing inside could go on for three weeks.
They’ll do some repair work, too. Below a window is a wide hole firefighters cut to get to Ruby Grimes as a fire burned in her back bedroom.
A Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department report obtained by First Coast News tells how rescuers had to scoop up Grimes from her bed and carry her outside.
The report also pinpoints what the commander on the scene saw as the cause of the blaze: a plug in air freshener. Specifically, attorneys say, a Febreze Scentstories machine.
The report cites a short circuit in the unit’s wiring as the flashpoint for the fire.
Procter and Gamble is the company that has marketed the machines since their release more than two years ago. A spokesman says they’ve never seen a confirmed case of a Febreze machine starting a fire.
“We would not expect the Scentstories device to be involved in an incident like this,” Ross Holthouse told First Coast News by phone, adding that product safety is, “something that we’re really concerned about and that we’re really passionate about.”
The company says it will investigate.
First Coast News’ own research also turned up no cases of fires caused by the Febreze machines.