Husqvarna LGT26K54

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20181022-26E23-2147384864. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Husqvarna LGT26K54 (Husqvarna 54" Garden Tractor Model #LGT26K54). Incident: On 03/12/2012 my husband and I bought a Husqvarna riding lawn mower. It had issues from the beginning. Many times when you would start it, it would spit and sputter and throw out black smoke. If you let it do this for about 3-4 minutes, it would come out of it. Occasionally, it would do this while you were mowing, You would have to stop and let it spit and sputter until it was done, and then it would run fine. We took the lawn mower in to a repair shop several times, only to be told there was nothing wrong with it. On 10/3/2018, I mowed my yard. I had to stop and pick something up in the yard. I turned the mower off, got off and picked up my mums. When I got back on the mower, it wouldn't start. This was not the first time this had happened. Most of the time, I would sit on the mower and wait it out because after a few minutes it would start. This day, I decided to go inside and check the time and get me something to drink. I came inside and grabbed a cup to put ice in and I heard a big BOOM! I thought someone had hit something such as a telephone pole because it was so loud. I looked out and my mower was engulfed in flames. Flames were 20-25 feet in the air. I had neighbors stop by because they thought my house was on fire, because the flames were so tall and the smoke was so black. Thank goodness, I didn't stay on the mower. It would have killed me. It just so happened it quit at the end of my driveway. Otherwise, if I had parked by my house, or in my garage, they too would have caught fire. On 10/4/2018, I called Husqvarna and reported what happened. They had me send pic