SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20191007-26514-2147377276. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Heat & Glo SL7 (Heat & Glo SL7 Gas Fireplace). Incident: A Heat & Glo fireplace, model SL7, was being used in my home. The unit was installed with new construction in 2019; it was not hooked up until fall 2017. A requirement of the builder (Fine Line Homes) was that fireplaces are not connected without a service call from the distributor to teach proper use. This requirement was complied with. The unit had been checked by a qualified service technician from the distributor on 12/3/18, after having sat (new) without use for one year. The fireplace was used occasionally between 12/3/2019 and 4/15/2019, perhaps 20 times. The fireplace was used on the morning of 10/6/2019 for approximately two hours and was again turned on in the evening. After 5-10 minutes of use in the evening, the tempered glass exploded in the fireplace, sending glass throughout the logs and into the screen, where it dropped out of the fireplace and scattered on the hearth. Pictures are available. I first went to my distributor with a picture of the fireplace and paid to have glass ordered to fix the fireplace. They could not tell me why the glass shattered and broke. I contacted Heat & Glo and they would not assist me with this, nor could they explain why the product is only warranted for one year. They also could not explain why or how this happens, they continued to tell me that I needed to �contact the distributor� and that they do not work with consumers. I have no idea if there is an issue with this fireplace (it is a company owned by Hearth & Home, which also has had similar appliances recalled. No one from the Heat & Glo company will tell me anything. The