SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200102-E8A95-2147375645. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: General Electric GSC23LSRC SS (kitchen refrigerator.). Incident: I have a GE side-by-side refrigerator, model GSC23LSRC SS, serial number GH415160. It was put in use in my house in May of 2005. Never had any problem until yesteday evening Dec 23 2019. My wife heard some noises in the kitchen, and when she was near the refrigerator she smelled burned plastic. We did not see anything burning, so thought nothing of it. About 15 minutes later, there was another sound that was very noticeable, and stronger burning smell from the refrigerator. I laid flat on the floor, looking into the bottom of the refrigerator through the plastic grill, and saw a flame on the bottom side of the fridge. I quickly unplugged the refrigerator. I have not used it since then, and intend to dispose of the refrigerator. We are buying a new refrigerator. I believe this refrigerator GE Profile family model is pretty popular back then, and think maybe many are being used today. I have read somewhere there was a class action lawsuit against GE for this refrigerator in 2013. I just learned about this lawsuit after this incident. I thought the responsible government agency should know about the potential fire hazard of this refrigerator and the like models. I still have the refrigerator, until Dec 30, when HomeDepot will deliver new refrigerator and take a way this dangerous appliance. It was a good thing we were home at that time. I don't want to think what could happen if we were not home.