SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20180623-AAF5D-2147387204. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Fellowes PS60C-2 (Fellowes PS60C-2 paper shredder). Incident: I own a Fellowes PS60C-2 paper shredder. I don't use it too much these days but I use to use it for light home office duties and have loved it. I've owned this shredder for maybe 6 or 7 years (honestly, I forget exactly when I had bought it). Over the past year or so I noticed that it would sometimes not shut off after shredding something, and I'd have to turn the power switch off then back on again. That was annoying but not that big of a deal. The other night, I was woken up in the middle of the night by an odd sound. It roused me out of bed and I found that the shredder had spontaneously turned itself on, the motor was running and it was beginning to overheat and smoke. I worry that had I not heard the noise that it might have caught on fire!! I'm now afraid to even have it plugged in for fear that it's going to burn my house down!