SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200421-EC35A-2147372778. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: John Deere Z445 (John Deere Z445 zero-turn mower Model Z445). Incident: I was finishing mowing my lawn with my John Deere Z445 zero turn lawn mower near dark and noticed a glowing ember and flame from the right panel (a fender). The source of the fire was the right side light of a dealer installed BM23575 lighting kit. The light fixture can pivot when it encounters shrubs, as I believe happened in this case. Apparently, the wiring or contacts of the bulb shorted and overheated. The bulb melted its way out of the housing and fell against the plastic fender panel causing it to melt, overheat and produce a flame. I turned the light switch off and the flame abated. This may be a design defect as John Deere fender panels used to be metal and the lights encased in a housing. The fact that the lights can pivot and the wiring flexes allows the possibility that an electrical short is likely to occur over time. The 'outrigger' positioning of the lights leads to the likelihood that they will come in contact with evergreens and bushes in normal use. I can understand that plastic fenders won't rust and are less expensive, but the lights need to be in a housing for protection. This right fender panel includes the gas cap and though most people would turn off the mower or the lights as I did, potential contact with gasoline spillage is a possibility. I would have thought this series of events to be very unlikely, until it happened to me in very normal operation.