Man lucky to catch fried fridge fire
Homeowner cringes at thought house could have burned if he wasn’t home
An Amherstburg man who stayed up one night this week when his family went to bed believes that decision saved their lives after his fridge spontaneously caught fire.
Tom Catherwood cringes to think of what could have happened if he had been asleep late Monday when his Frigidaire started to sizzle and flame.
“I have four kids,” he said. “My mother-in-law, even my grandson was at the house. They were all sleeping. We had just gone away for two days before this. If I wasn’t home, my house would be in ashes right now, no question.”
Frigidaire’s parent company, Electrolux, wouldn’t comment Wednesday about whether this has been an issue in the past. But spokeswoman Eloise Hale did say representatives reached out to Catherwood after the Star made inquiries to the company.
“We take the safety of our products very seriously and are pleased to be working with Mr. Catherwood to quickly investigate and resolve this issue,” she said.
Before this week, Catherwood had no serious problems with the fridge in the five years he owned it.
Then around 10 p.m. Monday, he noticed a burning smell in his house. It went away then returned. That happened a few times.
“I couldn’t figure out what it was,” he said. “I unplugged the stove, thinking that’s what it was. Then I heard it sizzling. I pulled out my fridge and there’s flames coming out of the back of the fridge at the bottom.”
He unplugged the fridge, put the fire out and pulled off the back cover.
“I could see that a starter capacitor on the compressor itself was fried,” said Catherwood.
If the family was away or just sleeping, he said, it could have been “disastrous.”
“We have vacation coming up soon, and like I said, we were just gone all last weekend,” said Catherwood.
“My mother-in-law was in the house by herself all weekend. She’s 86 years old. She can’t hear anything. She wouldn’t hear a smoke detector, I bet you. It could have been very, very tragic.”
The chilling incident got him wondering how many other people are unknowingly living with the potential hazard in their kitchen.
“I don’t want somebody to lose a life or another house to burn down,” said Catherwood.
“I’m just afraid; how many other people have the same fridge? They make these under so many different names. It’s pretty scary.”
He went online to research the problem and was shocked to find thousands of hits, including videos and news stories related to different brands of fridges catching fire.
“I Googled it and right away there are videos of these things burning up,” he said. “But when I called Electrolux they were stone cold. They said it’s beyond warranty, there’s nothing they can do. The best they could do was suggest some local repair services — at my cost, of course.”
He said he called Electrolux on Tuesday.
“They showed no compassion to the fact that it could have killed my whole family and burned my house down,” said Catherwood.
“She just said sorry for the inconvenience. It’s not an inconvenience; my house could have burned down. I’m not worried about saving the yogurt that’s in the fridge.”
He said that after the Star contacted Electrolux, he received a call from the company Wednesday offering to send out a technician.
But Catherwood won’t be getting that fridge fixed.
“I’m going to buy a new one,” he said. “I have no interest in keeping that thing in my house.”