Just had a fridge compressor catch fire on me in a condo in Austin last week

Was doing a routine compressor swap on a 5 year old Samsung fridge. I've done like a hundred of these before no problem. But this time the start relay was arcing and it lit up some dust and plastic right in front of me. Took me about 30 seconds to find a fire extinguisher and put it out. The unit was toast but at least the whole building didn't go up. Now I always keep an extinguisher clipped to my toolbox at all times. Has anyone else had a close call like that on a normal service call?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakotab9326d ago

Oh man, that's terrifying! I had a similar thing happen with a dryer once and it shook me up bad. I mean, who expects a flame to just shoot out of a relay like that? I always thought I was super careful but you never know when dust bunnies are gonna turn into a fire hazard. Now I'm paranoid and check every corner of my work area before I touch anything. At least you had the extinguisher ready after the fact, which is more than I can say for myself when I was scrambling around like a headless chicken looking for a towel to smother the stupid thing.

cole_baker26d ago

Nothing makes you feel like a genius like finally finding the fire extinguisher after the flames are already out @dakotab93.

murray.jana26d ago

Nah, overreacting a bit... dust fires are pretty rare honestly.