SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20190926-9AD77-2147377451. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Samsung ME20H705MSS (Microwave). Incident: My wife placed a bowl of bean soup in the microwave for two minutes and left the kitchen. When she came back to the kitchen, she screamed that the microwave was on fire. I came upstairs and entered the kitchen coughing. I didn't see any flames or anything smoldering. I opened the window and aired out the kitchen. The smoke didn't smell like burned food, but more like burnt plastic or electrical wires. I asked my wife if she put any metal objects in the microwave unintentionally. She claimed she didn't. After the smoked cleared, I checked the inside of the microwave for anything that could have caused the issue. I found nothing and performed a test to see if it operates. I ran the microwave set for 2 minutes. After about a minute running, I saw smoke coming from the bottom of the microwave. I immediately stopped the microwave and unplugged it. I just reported the issue to Samsung customer care and they said someone will contact me within 24 to 48 hours due to high call volume. I felt the issue was urgent and they should have escalated it for a faster response.