Plug in air freshener scare - Hoax

[littleboo 10]

Received from a friend.

 

It is well worth reading.

 

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 Plug-In air freshener, 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.

 

 

I have loads of these things, and am now going to unplug them promptly

[Mo 10]

Could this be an urban myth?

 

For a start bathrooms don't have electric sockets or certainly shouldn't have if wired by a 'real' electrician.

 

I am therefore dubious.

 

I found this http://answers.org/apologetics/fragrant_clear_thinking.html

[mat1978 10]

Does this sound familiar? hoax?

[SpeedwayDan 10]

yep, just from the way its written you can tell it's a hoax.

 

anything that plugs into an electrical socket has to pass stringent tests anyway

[Plain Talker 11]

and a similar hoax type story here, too:-

 

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/glade.asp

 

(note on this site, that the original hoax-y story is actually over 10 yrs old)

 

PT

[max 13]

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly forummers identify hoaxes. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

[SpeedwayDan 10]

Originally posted by max

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly forummers identify hoaxes. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

 

now is this a hoax, maybe if we give ourselves a pat on tha back, we will dislocate our shoulders or something............nah, im not falling for this one:suspect: .................me, paranoid, never:D

[melthebell 862]

i thought hoax as soon as i read "Received from a friend. It is well worth reading. The original message was written by"

but i couldnt think of a reason why

[Twiglet 10]

PHEW! Don't do that to me! I've travelled to stay with my parents until the end of this week and it reminded me the one thing I didn't unplug was my air freshener. Hopefully my house will be in one piece when I get back.

[littleboo 10]

I actually thought it was a hoax but there was one thing that made me wonder.

 

on the original email the plug in air freshener brand was named. I took this out as I didn't think it was right to put the brand name in.

[Twiglet 10]

Was it.......

 

this one? http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/fire_safety/recalls/detail.asp?id=5

 

I hope so, mine isn't that one!

[kookymonster 10]

Not related to fire but if your 2 year old drinks the contents of your plug in as mine did a year ago they will be fine, as my rat bag was after many calls to NHS Direct.