SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20180316-5BCCF-2147389241. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: GENERAC Model# 0065520 (Stand by home generator). Incident: We purchased a generator a few years ago. It was very expensive and between the unit and installation we paid about $12,000.00. For the past few years it has been serviced by the same business that worked with LOEWS store to install the unit. We have not had an emergency since we purchased the unit. We made our purchase to be ready for power outages. However, on March 2, 2018 during a power outage we experienced system failure on its very first test run. Shortly after our generator turned on we noticed our lights would flicker and remained flickering for the next few hours our generator was running. My husband and I was then alerted by our carbon monoxide detectors in our home of high levels of carbon monoxide rapidly rising. We immediately called the fire department who confirmed high levels of carbon monoxide in our home with the highest reading upstairs where our bedrooms were. After a thorough search they found the problem could be coming from our outside stand by generator. They advised us to turn it off. We were evacuated from our home and instructed to ventilate the home. They also instructed us to call the gas company and have them check and make sure there were no gas leaks present. We called our gas company and our generator service technicians the following morning. The gas company met with us at our home later in the afternoon to run their check. After turning on our generator during their check for gas leaks the gas technician also confirmed smelling fumes from our generator. Later explaining to us that there is a difference between propane fumes and exhaust fu