SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20191031-0370C-2147376845. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Frigidaire FFHS2622MWKA (Refrigerator. Dimensions: Height: 69 7/8 (70 with door); Width: 35 5/8; Depth: 31 3/4. Color: white). Incident: Our refrigerator had a sustained electrical fire in the inverter circuitry that connects to the compressor tank. At 10:00 pm on October 30, 2019 I was in my kitchen to turn off lights. Immediately upon entering the kitchen I could smell smoke that was indicative of an electrical fire. I alerted my wife, and we started searching for the source. At that time there was no active fire for us to track down, but the smoke odor was strongest near the fridge. The fridge then activated its cooling motor and I immediately heard a sizzling sound from the underneath the fridge. I looked through the grate and saw a sustained 2-3 inch high electrical fire. I reached behind the fridge and unplugged it and the fire immediately stopped. I rolled the fridge away from the wall in its designated place and started inspecting the rear to be sure that there was no risk of it restarting while it was unplugged. Once I was sure it would not start again, I started looking for a possible cause. Eventually, while inspecting it I saw a drop of water land directly onto a electrical connector box for the inverter next to the compressor tank. I followed the source of the dripping water to an access port position directly above the inverter for the water hose that goes to and from the water filter. Inspecting this port on the inside of the fridge, I found that the foam sealant was no longer adhered to the interior housing of the fridge and water from condensation or other sources inside the fridge was leaking through this port and dripping directly onto the wiring for the inverter. Given the known wet natur