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New Motorola Mag One A8 on fire

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Srill

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Hello,

I am new here and appreciate any help or advice that anyone has to offer.


A few weeks ago we bought a number of brand new Motorola Mag One A8 two way radios. We are a security company and some of our accounts don't have a place for us to keep our radios so the site Supervisor will take the radios home to charge. A few nights ago one of our supervisors took his 4 radios home and set them on his kitchen counter. They were not on the charger. He went to sleep and was awoken 4 or 5 hrs later to smoke alarms. He went into his kitchen and found the radios on fire. Thank god it wasn't much worse than some black soot on the wall. I know that the radios were not on the chargers because the chargers were not melted but the 4 radios were melted and stuck together. These radios use a 7.2 Nickel-Metal Hydride battery. I know the Li-ion batteries can catch on fire but not this style battery. Has anyone experienced anything like this before or have any idea what could of caused this. My concern is that we have a number of supervisors that do the same thing with their radios plus we have a number of accounts that we have 20 plus radios that sit on the chargers when not in use. I don't want to see someone home or business get burned dow or someone get hurt. Currently we have 150 of these radios that we just purchased.

Any info or experiences on something like this would be appreciated.
 

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MTS2000des

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You should contact Motorola Solutions and let them know, and maybe even the CPSC and report an unsafe business product. I ASSUME you are using OEM batteries and chargers from an authorized Motorola/Mag One dealer, you should also put them on notice too.

If it were me, I would cease and desist using all the radios and most importantly, UNPLUG ALL CHARGERS FROM A POWER SOURCE and do not use them until they have been fully inspected and you get a response from Motorola and/or the CPSC.

Obviously you are owed some new radios and charger but you want them all to be SAFE. It is also paramount that you get both the manufacturer and CPSC involved so as to prevent not only another case of this happening in your fleet but to prevent the loss of lives and property.

The dealer who sold them to your company should step up and replace the radios with some loaners of another make/model until you get this resolved so your business is not offline. This is where a reputable dealer will shine.

Best of luck to you and I am most glad only the radios were damaged and not you or your home (other than the minor smoke). Further proves why it is ESSENTIAL that all home have functional smoke alarms.
 

buddrousa

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The OP stated the chargers were not burnt the chargers were not damaged. It may be possible that something touched across the battery terminals shorting out one battery and the fire heat damaged the other 3 radios. Not say this is what happened I am just saying this could be possible.
 

AA4TX

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"I know that the radios were not on the chargers because the chargers were not melted but the 4 radios were melted and stuck together."

I could be mistaken, but it looks like three radios and a charger in that mess. The radios do not have a transformer or long wires like that seen in the middle of the photo.
 

AA4TX

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I wonder what happened to the antennas? One radio face up, two face down. Interesting hole pattern on the bottom of what seems to be a charger in the lower right of the picture (round object). Have to look to see if it matches the bottom of the OEM charger later today. Anyone know if the cells in the OEM battery are horizontal like those in the picture?
 

SCPD

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I think something other than an internal fire happened to these radios.
It's a good story, though.
 

madrabbitt

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Not only does this forum have armchair lawyers and couch MBA's, but apparently we also have kitchen table arson investigators.

However, i agree that it very much appears to be 3 radios and a charger base.
 

buddrousa

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I see 4 radios with the bottom right the knobs pointing to the 7 o clock position and I do work in a fire department I also have to find the cause of a fire. The radios have been moved from where they burnt the bottom right radio has been turned over where it puddled and cooled the wire you see is a transformer for a charger. But as I say I did not see the scene before everything was moved to take pictures. This is just a possibility of what might have happened.
 

madrabbitt

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I see 4 radios with the bottom right the knobs pointing to the 7 o clock position and I do work in a fire department I also have to find the cause of a fire. The radios have been moved from where they burnt the bottom right radio has been turned over where it puddled and cooled the wire you see is a transformer for a charger. But as I say I did not see the scene before everything was moved to take pictures. This is just a possibility of what might have happened.

I see 3 radios and what looks like a round moto/mag charger, plus the transformer for the charger.
Looks like the bottom of the "puddle" is facing upwards.

Since the transformer is damaged and in with the rest of the mess, it would seem to me that it wasnt plugged in or charging at the time of the fire, the charger was sitting there with the radios.

Best guess, based on training and experience... and like you said, we didnt actually get to see the scene or the original placement... is a short circuit to the battery contacts on one of the radios.

Whomever said to contact the dealer/vendor that sold them, motorola directly, and a consumer product safety agency, and to seriously consider taking the remainder of them out of service for now, THAT is exactly the advice i would give.
 

SCPD

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Next to the veggies

Not only does this forum have armchair lawyers and couch MBA's, but apparently we also have kitchen table arson investigators.

However, i agree that it very much appears to be 3 radios and a charger base.

I don't think these radios burnt in the kitchen.
I'm looking at the top two radios, and the marks across them, and thinking they were laid on a grill.
I didn't just do a knee-jerk post when I seen the picture, I thought about it for a bit, but I just can't think of a more plausible explanation for those lines burnt into the top two radios, other than they were laying across something hot as they melted, that made those marks. I just can't see where the radios catching fire on their own would cause those bars on the top two radios.

Plus think about it. 3 batteries catch fire at the same time? I'm thinking not likely.
If it was the charger, only the radio in the charger and the charger would melted down.
If it was the battery in the radio getting charged, only that radio and the charger would of melted down.
If it was the battery on a non-charging radio, it wouldn't of melted the charger and the other two radios.

But I'm no professional arson investigator, so I could be wrong.
 

Project25_MASTR

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I don't think these radios burnt in the kitchen.
I'm looking at the top two radios, and the marks across them, and thinking they were laid on a grill.
I didn't just do a knee-jerk post when I seen the picture, I thought about it for a bit, but I just can't think of a more plausible explanation for those lines burnt into the top two radios, other than they were laying across something hot as they melted, that made those marks. I just can't see where the radios catching fire on their own would cause those bars on the top two radios.

Plus think about it. 3 batteries catch fire at the same time? I'm thinking not likely.
If it was the charger, only the radio in the charger and the charger would melted down.
If it was the battery in the radio getting charged, only that radio and the charger would of melted down.
If it was the battery on a non-charging radio, it wouldn't of melted the charger and the other two radios.

But I'm no professional arson investigator, so I could be wrong.

I'm not either but if you look closely, the lines on the back of the radios appear to be the individual cells from inside the battery. Spacing is too close for most grills/oven racks. I'm not trying to make assumptions on what happened. Just following for the entertainment of reading everyone's analysis. Just my $0.02.
 

madrabbitt

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I'm not either but if you look closely, the lines on the back of the radios appear to be the individual cells from inside the battery. Spacing is too close for most grills/oven racks. I'm not trying to make assumptions on what happened. Just following for the entertainment of reading everyone's analysis. Just my $0.02.

Two of the three radios's backs are towards the camera. The third one is the front.
The ones with the backs towards us, the individual battery cells are visible in the photo because the melting plastic.
So yes, you're correct on what you see.
 

madrabbitt

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Also, now that i'm home and looking at this on a bigger and better monitor, i do see a fourth radio in the mess. Parallel with the middle one, where the charger transformer is sitting on top. That one appears to have the most damage, so thats likely the one where the battery shorted.
 

buddrousa

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Thats all I see is 4 radios and 1 transformer and the bottem right radio has been turned over from when it burnt from the looks of it. Like I said I did not see this before it was moved so all is just a guess.
 
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