SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200910-E7535-2147369902. Severity: Injury, First Aid Received by Non-Medical Professional. Product: Kenmore 790.80333310 (Over the range microwave, stainless w black trim. Kenmore. Operated fine for almost 3 years, 1000 watts, bought new, contractor installed). Incident: Over-the-range Kenmore Elite microwave got so hot that plastic trim melted loose. Would not turn off. We had to get stepstool and unplug it. Last thing it was used for was to rewarm two mugs of coffee, one minute autostart like we have done a thousand times. We opened the door, took our mugs, shut the door. The microwave did nothing that would attract our attention. We then left the kitchen. I came back into the kitchen about 45 minutes later because there was an unpleasant smell. The microwave was on and the first thing I did was grab the door handle to open/stop it. Every surface was hot, and the black plastic above the door came loose, pieces came off and it continued to make operating sounds. I shut door, grabbed stepstool and unplugged it from outlet in cabinet above. Surrounding wood cabinets were very dangerously hot, so we wiped with water and I sat on a stool with the fire extinguisher ready while my husband went into another room with shared wall to see if on fire behind kitchen wall. No one turned the microwave on. We we're lucky to have been home and noticed the hot plastics smell. Very minor burn on finger, ice, then, sprayed [REDACTED] on it. Extremely frightened.