SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20221011-1C7D2-2147353386. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Hustler Raptor Model #934778 (60" 26 HP v twin hydro-static zero turn lawn mower). Incident: My husband had been mowing for about 30 minutes and he did not realize it, but the lawn mower was on fire. The fire was behind where he was sitting on the Hustler Raptor so he was riding along mowing, not realizing the mower was on fire. The grass was dry with no rain so it caught fire. When he realized the mower was on fire, he had to bail off because the mower quickly became engulfed in flames. He called 911 and grabbed a fire extinguisher but the extinguisher was no match for the fire. I called the neighbors who then moved their livestock because the fire was spreading to their fence line. The fire department came and put the fire out. It was so dangerous because the fire was behind my husband so he had no idea the mower was burning and he was so fortunate to bail off without getting burned. The outcome could have been much worse. Afterwards, we found out that the Hustler mowers were recalled in 2019 due to fires but we were never notified and had no clue it was a fire danger.. I contacted Hustler and sent pictures and the fire report but I was told that the mower was no longer under warranty so they couldn't help me