Preventable Fire Stories

Recall

American Weight Scales is recalling about 1,300 bench scale AC adapters because they can catch fire.

American Weigh Scales has three reports of incidents involving the adapters smoking after being plugged in. No injuries have been reported.

The recalled adapters are silver colored. “MINI CHARGER” is printed on the back of the adapter. When plugged in, a red light shines through a blue plastic piece on the outer side of the adapter.

“AC Adapter” is printed on a white label on the inner side. The adapters are used with bench scale model AMW-13, AMW-1000, AMW-2000, and AMW-500i.

They were sold online www.americanweigh.com, www.gramscales.com, www.kitchenscales.com, and www.postalscales.com and through American Weigh Scales distributors from February 2008 through March 2008 for about $10.

CALL FOR ACTION: Xbox aftermarket product is dangerousCall for Action helps stop the sale of a dangerous product.By WINK News

Story Created: Jan 9, 2008 at 3:57 PM EST

Junji Hijikata thought he was getting a great deal. “I ordered…it was like half price so I thought I saved money, he said. He bought an XBox 360 AC adapter on amazon dot com to power his game console. But just four days later, he was awakened by a fire alarm in his room.

“I found that smoking”, he said. That–was his new AC adapter. It was smoking just a couple of inches from curtains. Upset, he contacted amazon.com, and when he didn’t get anywhere he came to Call for Action.

…
Product was distributed by Gamecast Marketing
The serial number: 2136220OO24257
vendor/parnumber: X803215-001

more at LINK

They’re still for sale on Amazon.  Probably right after Amazon pulled the listings the vendors added new ones.

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.

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