Just a little heads up

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sunshine2be

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Swanton, Ohio
I used to work at a hospital in the area, and had heard this from a fire inspector there also.

Received from a friend who is in the property insurance business. It is well worth reading. This is one of those e-mails that if you didn't send it, rest assured someone on your list will suffer for not reading it. The original message was written by a lady whose brother and his wife learned a hard lesson this past week.

Their house burned down.. ..nothing left but ashes. They have good insurance so the house will be replaced and most of the contents. That is the good news.

However, they were sick when they found out the cause of the fire. The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours. He had the cause of the fire traced to the master bathroom. He asked her sister-in-law what she had plugged in the bathroom. She listed the normal things....curling iron, blow dryer. He kept saying to her, "No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures". Then her sister-in-law remembered she had a Glade Plug-In, in the bathroom.

The investigator had one of those "Aha" moments. He said that was the cause of the fire. He said he has seen more house fires started with the plug-in type room fresheners than anything else. He said the plastic they are made from is THIN plastic. He also said that in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed.

When the investigator looked in the wall plug, the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there. Her sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small night light built in it. She said

she had noticed that the light would dim and then finally go out. She would walk in to the bathroom a few hours later, and the light would be back on again. The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down it would come back on.

That is a warning sign . The investigator said he personally wouldn't have any type of plug in fragrance device anywhere in his house. He has seen too many places that have been burned down due to them.
 
Thank you, that is a good piece of information to know. I will have to tell Mom because she has them all over the house
new_shocked.gif
. That's scary that something so little and so common can cause that.
 
I have pulled all of mine out of the house. Too many animals that could be hurt if the house was burnt down.

Thanks for the warning.
 
I used to have them all over my house also. I just love the fresh scent, but it is certainly not worth losing my house for..
new_shocked.gif
 
Ok thats all I need to know. I'm throwing mine away as of right now! Thanks for the heads up!
yes.gif
 
This happened in my husbands fire district too. Being a firefighter he saw first hand what these things can and will do. I'll never use them either.
 
What a terrible shame! It sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen to me.
no.gif


I use other things asides the plug in's, but was looking at them and thinking about them the other day, glad for the heads up!
 
Whenever I see any warning of this type I always check out the website snopes.com, it lists many, many urban legends, rumours etc. They take the time to further investigate this type of thing. I have found it very helpful. Here is the link to their page about Glade plug-ins with this exact story attached.

glade plugins
 
All I know is that like I said I used to work at a local hospital and our fire inspector warned us about this, and then I was sent this note. Also as Dimimore said:

This happened in my husbands fire district too. Being a firefighter he saw first hand what these things can and will do. I'll never use them either.

You can take it for what it's worth or ignore it and take the chance, your choice. For me I would rather not..
 
All I know is that like I said I used to work at a local hospital and our fire inspector warned us about this, and then I was sent this note. Also as Dimimore said:
This happened in my husbands fire district too. Being a firefighter he saw first hand what these things can and will do. I'll never use them either.

You can take it for what it's worth or ignore it and take the chance, your choice. For me I would rather not..
I was in no way, shape or form trying to start an arguement here. This note that you were sent is one that has been circulating since 2004, the web site that I linked to doesn't discredit anything you have said, it just gives additional info on this topic that I thought was well worth reading, sorry if I have offended anyone by adding some additional information...
 
Glade PlugIns Fire Hazard

Claim: Glade PlugIns brand air fresheners pose a greater-than-usual fire hazard.

Status: Undetermined.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2004]

Electrical Hazard

My brother and his wife learned a hard lesson this last week. Their house burned down...nothing left but ashes. They have good insurance, so the home will be replaced and most of the contents. That is the good news. However, they were sick when they found out the cause of the fire.

The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours. He had the cause of the fire traced to the master bathroom. He asked my sister-in-law what she had plugged in the bathroom. She listed the normal things....curling iron, blow dryer. He kept saying to her, "No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures." Then, my sister-in-law remembered she had a Glade Plug-in in the bathroom. The investigator had one of those "Aha" moments. He said that was the cause of the fire. He said he has seen more home fires started with the plug in type room fresheners than anything else. He said the plastic they are made from is a THIN plastic. He said in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed. When the investigator looked in the wall plug, the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there.

My sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small night light built in it. She said she had noticed that the light would dim....and then finally go out. She would walk in a few hours later, and the light would be back on again. The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down, it would come back on. That is a warning sign. The investigator said he personally wouldn't have any type of plug in fragrance device anywhere in his house. He has seen too many burned down homes.

Thought I would warn you all. I had several of them plugged in my house. I immediately took them all down.

Origins: In early 2002, manufacturer SC Johnson invoked a voluntary recall of their Glade brand 'Extra Outlet Scented Oil Air Fresheners' (a plug-in air freshener which included its own outlet so that consumers wouldn't have to give up an outlet space to use it) because they had found a loose connection inside the extra outlet that might pose a fire hazard. There had been no actual reports of fires property damage associated with the product prior to its recall, however:

In October 1994, Johnson recalled five million Glade plug-in fresheners sold between 1992 and July 1994 as a "precaution" after receving 600 complaints, including "12 allegations about the fresheners being involved in fires."

In 2002, WABC-TV reporter Tappy Phillips covered a story about a possible connection between plug-in air fresheners and home fires, but nothing conclusive was determined. Phillips said the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) showed them "scores of reports from consumers, chronicling fire hazards associated with plug-in air fresheners from various manufacturers," but the CPSC also acknowledged "some fires attributed to air fresheners may be caused by faulty electrical wiring." WABC looked at two instances where air fresheners were suspected in house fires, but the causes of the fires had not been definitively established. (Both cases involved not Glade brand products, but Wallflower, a plug-in air freshener manufactured by the White Barn Candle Company.)

We haven't found a conclusive study establishing that plug-in air fresheners pose a significantly higher fire hazard than other electrical devices. Although fire officials will often recommend that consumers not use plug-in air fresheners, it could be the case that air fresheners are mistakenly being blamed for fires started by other causes (such as faulty wiring), just as cell phones are often falsely cited as the cause of gas station fires attributable to other causes (usually static electricity).

According to the FAQ SC Johnson has now placed on the web site for their Glade brand products:

SC Johnson recently learned that there have been postings on the Internet that have claimed that our products were involved in fires. It's important that you know that all of our PlugIns® products are safe and will not cause fires. We know this because PlugIns® products have been sold for more than 15 years and hundreds of millions of the products are being used safely.

Furthermore, because we are committed to selling safe products, SC Johnson further investigated these rumors. Internally, we confirmed that no one had contacted SC Johnson to tell us about these fires or to ask us to investigate them. Additionally, we were able to have a fire investigation expert call the fire department representative who is identified in one of the Internet postings. That fireman indicated that he has no evidence that our products had caused any fire.

We also know that our products do not cause fires because all of our PlugIns® products have been thoroughly tested by Underwriters Laboratories and other independent laboratories and our products meet or exceed safety requirements.

SC Johnson also has worked closely with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to investigate allegations that PlugIns® products have been involved in fires and CPSC has been satisfied that there is no basis for these allegations.

As a more than 100 year old family-owned company, SC Johnson is committed to providing top quality products that can be used safely in homes and we want to reassure you that PlugIns® products can be used with complete confidence.

Additional information: Looking at Potential Dangers of Plug-In Air Fresheners

(WABC-TV, New York)

Recall of Glade® Extra Outlet Scented Oil Air Fresheners

(CSPC)

Last updated: 24 January 2005

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/toxins/glade.asp
 

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