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    brald
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Console Spontaneous Combustion

Hi

Two nights ago we had an Element console (first generation) self-immolate while in a roadcase in a storage locker.

The fire was contained by sprinklers & FDNY to that and one neighboring room also destroying an Ion board and some other equipment. (Storage building is conveniently down the block from a station with the FDNY museum!).

Source was definitely the cased Element - there was no external source of heat or power in the storage locker.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening before? Is this a risk we should be aware of going forward or just a freak incident?

Thoughts on cause?

NOTE: I'm asking because I'M freaked out by this - I've been an ETC console user since the first 1980's IDEA, have never heard of such a thing. Comments will in not be cited in any way or be used in what no doubt will be a difficult discussion with our insurers.

  • in reply to Robert HG

    "...while in a roadcase in a storage locker."

    No, it was in storage - the backup for another out on a gig. In a room with no power save the overhead light. 

  • The only thing in the case was the console? No batteries, no external power supplies? Was the room temperature controlled and was there a failure of the HVAC?

    We can only speculate from our tech tables and you're about to become very familiar with the NYC fire inspectors, ultimately they'll provide the point and cause of ignition. It would be "shocking" all puns unavoidable, but an inert console doesn't have much more than a power supply to crack under pressure.... now...high school physics tells us that if it were overly hot, like REALLY hot in the room so much so that the console cooked inside the case leading to the power supply failing while the case expanded enough to split introducing enough oxygen while ALSO simultaneously introducing a spark it could POTENTIALLY start a fire... so I suppose it's not entirely impossible, but it's a situation where your odds are more likely to be struck by lighting, while being bitten by a shark on the day that you won the lottery....

    ETC isn't known for dangerously defective products and while I'm a die hard ETC user I can't say I've ever heard of any inert console in storage spontaneously combusting. Ultimately I'm sorry to hear about your situation and hope everything gets worked out.

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