SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20170624-09A3A-2147399435. Severity: Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received. Product: Cub Cadet 17WF2ACP009 (Zero turn, 50" deck, cub cadet riding lawnmower). Incident: I was cutting my front yard after refueling when for no apparent reason, the engine just quit. Having had trouble with the safety seat interlock before, I raised up off the seat to see what was going on. When I did, I smelled smoke and saw flames coming from the engine area. I jumped off the unit and ran to the house to get a garden hose. By the time I got back, the entire rear of the engine was engulfed in flames.(My wife took pictures) After about 5-10 minutes, I had the fire out and kept cooling the unit with water. Later that day, after googling "Cub Cadet Fire Hazard" I called the manufacturer, MTD, in Ohio and mentioned that over 4300 units had been recalled for a fire hazard. The initial rep as much as called me a liar, he said there was only an "advisory" issued for the units. I then spoke to his supervisor and was told because my model number was not on their recall list, they would accept no responsibility whatsoever for my unit catching fire. I had taken my unit to a authorized service center for the seat problem prior to that and nothing was ever said to me about a fire hazard possibility. I purchased the unit new from Tractor Supply Corp in June 2011. The unit only had 122 hours on its hour meter when it caught fire. The supervisor had stated there WAS a recall and it was due to a grommet attached to the fuel tank that was causing the problems, but they could not/would not do anything to compensate me for my loss. I have contacted my homeowners insurance company and that is still pending.