This has been circulated for the last 2-3 years. Most references have determined this to be an "urban legend".
It was the topic in one of my fire investigator classes, and we even tried to make it happen. It didn't.
At one time there was a picture of one of these plug-in air freshners that was involved in a fire on this site.
all the stuff i have ever heard about have mostly been second hand. It might be a urban legend or there just might not bee enough documantation to support it.
Anything that is electrical has a chance for failure just because it has not been prove that these have cause a fire does not mean it will happen in the future.
Ok, I can actually attest to this. Last year my department responded to what turned out to be a fatal fire in a condo development started by one of these night lights.
well it had the basic telltale signs from the get-go, and when the investigators came through, they determined that the glade nightlight was the cause. I don't know whether they make an inordinate number of fires, I just know that they caused one in my jurisdiction.
As others have said, any piece of electrical equipment can go wrong and cause a fire. We haven't been alerted to these things being a particular danger. Old TV's, old CRT computer monitors - both 'yes', we have recods of plenty of fires being started by those things. Though more often it's because of over-loaded power points.
Permalink Reply by FETC on November 19, 2008 at 11:25am
I have been to one that caught on fire and dropped out of the outlet in a residential bathroom, fell while on fire right into waist basket directly below in 2006. Room fire!