This metal Ikea bowl is literally starting fires, and here’s what you need to know
When you make an Ikea run, you expect to pick up something cheap and reasonably well-made. But for one Swedish shopper, Richard Walter, an easy Ikea bowl turned out to be a potential fire hazard.
Richard had gone to Ikea to pick up a bowl, and came home with a Blanda Blank, a mirrored serving bowl that currently retails for $4.99. He put some grapes inside the bowl, which he set outside on a sunny day.
Next thing he knew he smelled smoke, and the grapes were burning inside the bowl!
Confused, he put some paper in the bowl as an experiment. And lo and behold, the bowl started a fire AGAIN.
If you’re worried about your own Blanda Blank bowl starting a fire, Ikea wants to set you at ease. Emil Eriksson, an Ikea spokesperson, ensures that product safety is of the utmost importance for the home furnishings company. After a risk assessment, he claims that the risk of the bowl’s contents catching fire is very low, and that many different factors would have to combine to cause this reaction. Furthermore, the round shape of the bowl should keep heat from spreading.
We have no reason to believe that the circumstances of Richard’s bowl catching fire is a common occurrence. Right now, we have yet to hear more examples of the Blanda Blank bowl causing similar problems. But we’d still recommend using caution when serving from this metallic bowl in the sun! And be careful while you’re entertaining over the holiday weekend!
