SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20190324-9B172-2147382017. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Whirlpool GR396LXGQ (Whirlpool Gold oven SuperCapacity 465, Serial number RL1018420). Incident: Whirlpool Gold oven [manufactured / home built around 2001/2002] was used early in the day Feb 21, 2019 to cook chicken at 350 degrees F, was turned off by me when done. After I left home at 2:30pm that same day, the oven turned itself on [no one home], created intense heat, and was likely minutes away from starting a kitchen fire when I got home. I left home at 2:30pm to teach 2 lessons [my job], arrived home at appx 4:05pm to my home filled with smoke, chemical stench, and the oven blazing hot, the broiler coils lava red, and smoke coming out of the oven. The house was filled with a fine smoke and irritating smell that caused coughing for several hours. The oven had turned itself on while I was away, and was heating to what I estimate to be over 1000 degrees F. The oven showed self-cleaning mode and 'locked'. However, the door was unlocked, smoke was coming out and singed the top of the oven door, and WOULD NOT TURN OFF! I tried several times with the off button, the temp button to lower the temp, but it would not turn off. Talked with a friend who told me to run to the breaker box and turn off power to the oven/range, which I did. I kept the breaker off, and it is still off. Whirlpool sent a factory technician [Fields Factory Service, Orlando, FL] to check this out. Interior components of oven were severely damaged. When the technician turned on the power to the oven, the oven again turned itself on -- was already warm by the time he made his way into the kitchen, without having touched the oven control panel. Once again, it had turned itself on. He discussed that with W