New developments tonight in a Fox23 investigation of gas grill fires. The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled 24,000 Perfect Flame gas grills, exclusively sold at Lowe's. The recalled model number is GAC3615.
In tonight's Solving Problems follow-up,Fox23’s Emily Sinovic continues her month-long investigation. She’s discovering other models of the Perfect Flame grill that are also catching fire. I’ve now heard from more than a dozen other grill owners nationwide who own Perfect Flame gas grills that caught fire. Grill owners reported those fires to the manufacturer, Lucas Innovations, but none of their specific models were included in the recall.
That means there could be thousands of other gas grills out there that could catch fire and nobody knows it.
When I first reported what happened to Chris Jeffers Perfect Flame grill, his story was a familiar one to many. As emails poured in from all over the country, I continued reporting stories of grills bursting into flames.
Many of those grill fires, however, involved Perfect Flame grills with different model numbers--not included in the recall.
The fires looked just like the fires in the recalled grill.
The burners even look similar when you compare the burners from a recalled model and then look at burners from a model that caught fire, but was not recalled.
George Murphey in NY, sent me a picture of the burners in his Perfect Flame grill that caught fire—his is a Perfect Flame SLG2007 model—not included in the recall. He described his burners as cracked and rusty.
His pictures caught the attention of Kiyoko in Ann Arbor, MI who sent me a picture of similar rusty, cracked burners from her model number SLG2006 grill that caught fire. Kiyoko said, “I was just surprised because when I saw your report I was looking at the other photos, and I was like wow!”.
She says her burners could be to blame for her grill fire.
So does Laura Shepard in Virginia. She said, “I went out the door and my 4-year-old is right behind me and she says mommy, the grill’s on fire. And I went oh my gosh….All I could think of was that gas tank going off with my 4-year-old standing in that yard… that’s all I could think of. “
Shepard emailed me pictures of the same kind of rusty, cracked burners she found in her grill after it caught fire. She said, “You could see the two burners are blown open.”
It’s the same reason Randy Conley told me he’s afraid to use his Perfect Flame grill. He told me about the burners he had to replace when he said, “One of them cracked and broke, then another one broke, and another one broke. I just closed the lid and didn’t even use it. Couldn’t even use it. Could not use it, because all the heat would be back there and you couldn’t cook.”
Randy said it looked like those burners were heating up the same spots where other grills caught fire. He said after he saw pictures of what happened to other grills, he’s afraid to used his grill, because he says burners that are supposed to be stainless steel with a 10-year warranty shouldn’t look rusty and cracked after a few months.
Randy said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that it would be just like the other ones if I continue using it.”
Fox23 is now testing the burners to find out the quality of metal used by the manufacturer.
The manufacturer, Lucas Innovations, has not returned Fox23’s phone calls.
A spokesperson for Lowe’s told Fox23, she cannot comment on any grills other than the models that were recalled.
If you would like to tell us about your grill fire, just email Emily Sinovic at
esinovic@fox23.com
