A Regina family is Going Public after discovering a potential hazard where it was least expected — inside a refrigerator. Part of the interior of the family's LG refrigerator melted beyond repair due to a defect the manufacturer has known about for years.

Jeff Hine says he was "half asleep at 6 in the morning" when he opened the refrigerator door to make breakfast and discovered the top section of his refrigerator was so hot the plastic at the top had melted.

The cover for the fridge light melted from the heat. (CBC )

"I couldn't get the eggs out of the top compartment and everything else that was on the top of the fridge was warm. The yogurt was hot," Hine told Go Public.

"The cover for the light bulbs themselves — it was melted completely. It was all bubbled. You could see singe marks on the light bulbs and the housing. … We're concerned that could have ignited — to get that hot, to do that sort of damage."

Light bulbs didn't turn off

Hine says the light bulbs inside the family's LG refrigerator had failed to turn off when the door closed.

The temperature inside rose through the night as he, his wife, and their three young children slept nearby.

Hine says he grabbed a tube sock and removed the light bulbs to make sure the unit didn't continue to overheat. The heat of the bulbs burned a hole through the sock, he says.

Hine then woke his wife to show her what had happened.

"My first concern was a fire hazard, and just being thankful that our house didn't burn in the middle of the night and our family was safe," Christine Hine said.

"[Also] the burnt plastic in the fridge smelled really bad. My concern was the toxins from the burnt plastic, so I called poison control and they informed me I should throw out all the contents of my fridge with the exception of anything in a tightly sealed glass container."

Temperature hot as oven

Jeff Hine decided to do his own test. He used a meat thermometer to see how hot the light bulbs would get. In less than a minute, he says, the light bulb temperature was as hot as an oven, reaching more than 350 F.

Christine Hine called LG Canada's customer service.

Christine Hine says she is shocked there hasn't been a recall about a problem that has been known for 10 years. (CBC )

"[They] said that because they thought it was such a low incidence there was no safety recall. But when the repairman came he was well aware of the problem. He said he'd been repairing the problem for almost 10 years. It was shocking to me that this has been happening for almost 10 years and they weren't going to do a safety recall on it."

There are similar complaints online.

Previous warnings

In 2010, the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office put out a warning about the interior light bulbs in certain bottom mount, French-door LG refrigerator models and similar Sears' Kenmore refrigerator models, manufactured by LG between 2004 and 2007.

According to the fire marshal, approximately 145,000 affected refrigerators were sold in Canada through various major department stores.

In 2012, LG Electronics USA settled a class action lawsuit involving more than a dozen models with that potential defect built between February 2006 and February 2008. The Hines' fridge is one of those 2008 models mentioned in the class action.

It all has Christine Hine wondering why LG hasn't issued a recall.

"Given the fact that they knew there was a defect, and they failed to do a safety recall, they put our family and a lot of other families at risk," she said.

LG Canada responds

LG Canada has taken action. A few years ago, the company agreed to repair or replace refrigerators damaged by the light defect at no cost to its customers, but only after something happened.

In an email to Go Public, LG Electronics Canada says it is "fully aware of this issue and had conducted an in-depth investigation when it first arose," according to spokesman Albert Lee.

In 2010, Ontario's Electrical Safety Authority looked into potential hazards associated with these refrigerators. With information from LG, it determined there was no fire safety concern.

The extreme heat from the light burned the bulb sockets and melted the interior of the fridge. (CBC )

Health Canada is now in charge of issuing recalls for this kind of product. The agency told Go Public that since the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act kicked in in June 2011, it's received three reports by consumers and 31 reports from industry involving LG and Kenmore refrigerators. Despite those reports, Health Canada says there is no evidence of a safety risk.

Canada slow on recalls, says advocate

When it comes to recalls in general, Bruce Cran from the Consumers' Association of Canada says this country is often slow to issuing them. He says he'd like to see Canadian officials and companies recall more products before someone is hurt, not after.

"Risk management is all about stopping what could happen, but I don't think we do that very well," Cran says.

Safety is the primary consideration, he says, but there is also consumer satisfaction to consider.

In the Hines' case, there's also the issue of compensation. They say after the repairman determined their refrigerator was damaged beyond repair, LG offered the family $742, about one-third of what they paid for the unit, leaving them on the hook for the thousands of dollars it would cost to replace the fridge.

The family of five have been using a tiny bar fridge since their LG refrigerator melted down. (CBC )

"I don't really think it's acceptable given the fact that they knew there was a defect with our fridge and they put our family at risk. They should be willing to replace the fridge — the entire costs of replacement," Christine Hine said.

After Go Public contacted LG Canada, the company apologized.

"We are sorry that the Hine family did not get the service that they should have received. It appears that the family spoke with a new customer service representative who was not familiar with the repair and replacement policy, as this issue arises very rarely," Lee said.



LG says it will review the lifetime support policy it has put in place for this issue with its customer service team and it will contact the Hine family to offer a replacement unit.

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