Lamp exploded -- small fire!

[decodelighted]

Scary thing happened tonight when I was home alone. I was standing in the kitchen making a Pop Tart (don''t judge

) when the pendant lamp near our sink - over the trash can EXPLODED!!! Four or five sharp cracking explosions followed by a roar of fire & flames shooting out of the holes in the shade -- before I could even move the ceramic shade dropped to the floor & smoke was everywhere!!!

Our kitchen fire extinquisher was right below the fire & I couldn''t get to it! So I ran downstairs to shut all the breakers to that area of the house & by the time I got back there was a smoky smell but no visible fire.

I called 911 anyway & the fire folks came out to make sure there wasn''t any INTERNAL electrical fire going on ... I guess it was just a faulty lamp -- but if I hadn''t been STANDING THERE when it happened, the whole garbage can could have ignited or worse!

Somehow these things always happen when DH is out ...

But ... shamefully, we''ve had our fresh replacement smoke detectors stacked up in a "project zone" for a couple of months now -- un-hung. If a fire HAD started, say overnight ... we wouldn''t have been alerted.

So -- in addition to hanging ours tonight -- I thought I''d pass on the close call & warning to all my Pscope buds.

ALSO -- no Ikea lamps, EVER. I had a lamp with a raffia shade short out once before -- also caught fire - but much worse because it was PAPER. This lamp was also from Ikea. The bulb wasn''t even broken ... it was the WIRING inside the FIXTURE!!! Just say "no" to Ikea lamps!!!!!!!!!!

 

[fabcrab]

Awww I''m so sorry deco. I''m so glad you''re ok!!!!! You made some really smart decisions, if that was me I probably would''ve just stood there screaming.

Funny how you talk about IKEA lamps. I''m kind of angry because our Ikea lamp can only be changed with Ikea lightbulbs

.

 

[monarch64]

Oh, sorry to hear you had a fire Deco! Sounds like you kept your head though, glad everything turned out ok.

I have two nightstand hopeful lamps from Ikea that I purchased about 8 months ago sitting in boxes in our bedroom...the shades they came with are so crappy that I have never put them together and plugged them in...what a waste of a mere $20! I will be disposing of them based on this thread this weekend! I wouldn''t want to give them away knowing they are so frought with hazards and that they are a nuisance due to the lightbulb issue.

 

[ladykemma]

golly! glad you were home.

 

[sumbride]

SCARY!!! I''m glad you''re ok and that you were home!

We have 2 ikea lamps but only use them when we''re home. Now maybe they should go!

 

[laine]

Wow, thats scary! I was thinking of getting an ikea light fixture for my kitchen, but I think I''ll pass. I actually just got rid of ikea light in the dining room; it didn''t come with any sort of trim ring so you could see the wiring in the ceiling and it looked crappy. I ended up using the glass shade, so it wasn''t a complete waste.

You really ought to complain to Ikea about this--they need to know that there are issues with their lights!

 

[Miranda]

Wow Deco, I''m so glad you are okay. That is scary. I have Ikea lamps in my boys'' rooms. I''d better be going lamp shopping. Things like that ALWAYS happen to me when DH is out of town, too.

BTW...What kind of poptart??? Choc Fudge are my favorite. Yuuuuuummmmmmm.

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 5/10/2007 12:02:58 AM
Author:decodelighted
Scary thing happened tonight when I was home alone. I was standing in the kitchen making a Pop Tart (don''t judge

)

Ah, that was a hilarious start to my morning.

Thanks.

The fire though, is scary. We own one Ikea lamp that someone just gave to us - will never buy one. I need to replace the battery in our smoke detector. I''ve been putting it off because when it was working - it went off all the time since it''s kinda too close to the kitchen. Even when there was no visible smoke.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

How scary Deco! I am so glad you were there to solve the problem.

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 5/10/2007 11:44:13 AM
Author: Tacori E-ring
How scary Deco! I am so glad you were there to solve the problem.

I agree. Thank goodness you weren''t asleep in another room.

 

[Mara]

yikes deco what a scary experience!! glad to hear you are okay and what a stroke of luck that you WERE there to catch it. i am always paranoid about something happening to our house while we are gone (and what if portia is home etc)...

mmm pop tart.

 

[decodelighted]

THANKS guys ... for the concern!!

I'm serious about this Ikea lamp thing ... after the first one went up in flames (five, six years ago?) I should have known better. They have such cute designs though!! But now TWO Ikea lamps -- literally on FIRE ... never again.

It was a nightlight kind of pendant fixture too ... that I've left on overnight MANY times .. SO SCARY. Both times the lamp incidents have happened to me I've been inches -- not more than 2 feet away. I keep thinking, if I'd been in the other room ... upstairs ... asleep.

My neighbors were funny though -- our street is TINY so it was a HUGE deal when four fire pick-up trucks descended about 10pm last night. The firemen outnumbered the RESIDENTS!! When I met up with them to tell my less-than-riviting story "A lamp exploded" they were all : "At least we have something to talk about this week!". THAT's how sleepy this town is!

ETA: The Pop Tart was "Low-Fat Strawberry" ... that had been in the cabinet FOREVER. I was starving cuz DH has been "feeding my cold" of late & I forgot how to feed myself ... HA!!

 

[asscherisme]

Wow, how scary. Thank goodness you are OK and there was no property damage! I won''t buy anything at IKEA. I use to but it never lasted. Quality there stinks.

Oh, and I am so showing this thread to my husband and kids. They think I''m miss neurotic because I won''t leave the house with any lights on. I have a large house and they all complain because I have this compulsive need to make sure all the lights are OFF before I leave the house. I have threatend to start docking allowance from my kids because they are the worst with leaving lights on.

 

[Beacon]

Thanks for this info Deco - what happened to your lamp is one of my many nervous neuroses. I always worry things like that will happen and have sort of a latent/blatent fear of electrical things. I drive my husband crazy asking "did you turn X off, Y off, etc."

I will email my friends who I think have an Ikea lamp. Thankfully I don''t have any, but I do have a cheap one that I am suspicious of. Out she goes!

Glad you were right there to prevent disaster. That was so super lucky. Glad you are ok!

 

[Independent Gal]

IKEA: Swedish for ''junk''.

Glad yer ok, Deco. Scary!

 

[lovelylulu]

Yikes! and we have literally about 5 ikea lamps...

glad to hear that everything (minus the lamp) is just fine!

 

[Gypsy]

Oh WOW Deco, I'm glad you were there. Get those fire alarms installed.

And no Ikea lamps. Check. Thanks for the heads up! My uncle has an ikea lamp in his home office-- I'll give him the heads up.

I'm shopping for lamps right now. Pottery Barns seems likely though.

 

[Beacon]

I wonder if there is somewhere you can report this - Better Business Bureau? I don''t know. It might save someone''s life if they knew these lamps were hazardous.

 

[decodelighted]

Date: 5/10/2007 11:20:39 PM
Author: Beacon
I wonder if there is somewhere you can report this - Better Business Bureau? I don't know. It might save someone's life if they knew these lamps were hazardous.

You're right ... I don't have the model # of the five years ago lamp .. but I could describe it. Maybe I'll look online & see if its one they still offer. I'll see if I can find a # on the one that blew up last night ... it's pretty charred though.

Ya think it's BBB or Consumer Reports or Epinions ... I'm open to suggestions. It makes me scared for everyone -- there are so many out there & it's weird that this freaky thing has happened to me twice -- two different locations too .. once in a Brooklyn brownstone & here in the Hudson Valley. So I can't blame the place's wiring!

Some neighborkids were asking what happened & I said "A lamp exploded" and they were like "Lamps usually don't do that, do they?" And I was like "Nope - they don't usually do that. We'd all be in trouble if the USUALLY did that!"

 

[decodelighted]

**UPDATE***

I just did a quick search on Ikea & didn''t see either of the two lamps CURRENTLY being offered -- at least online.

But in case anyone is curious & checking their own lamps

THE FIRST ONE
was about 16 inches tall, silver tone base with a cylindrical 12 inch shade that was vertically wrapped raffia around a metal base -- no liner between the bulb & the raffia (what was I thinking - that just SOUNDS bad). In that case I think the BULB exploded & the lamp just caught on fire because it was so FLAMMABLE. I actually had to tamp that one out with wet towels.

THE LATEST ONE
is a kinda curvy white blobby looking cylindrical glass fixture with small holes punched through. kinda mod looking. it didn''t break during the explosions or even when it hit the floor, even the bulb didn''t break ... just the wiring wear the base met the fixture fried & burned through. It left black spots on the wall behind it -- where the flames or smoke or something blew through the holes & the whole inside is black & charred now.

 

[sleeping beauty]

Deco i can relate to how scared you mustve been. something similar happened to me today.. thanks god my bf was here. i had just gotten home after a long 16 hour shift and as i''m going to bed i see this flashing spark behing the bed. it was like lighting. i scream and said to my bf did you see that or am i going crazy???? He saw it. well after looking it was my LAMP from IKEA that burned or something. all i could see was that the plug was burnt out. SCARY!!!! i;m taking your advice and not buying lamps from IKEA again..... OK dont want to thread jack so... i''m glad you had quick thinking and everything was OK.

 

[lumpkin]

How scary!!! I''m so glad you and your house are okay.

Thank you for the wake up call and the warning about the Ikea lamps. All our smoke detectors are operational, but I know our fire extinguisher is about 20 years old. We really need to get a new one.