Web posted at: 8:14 a.m. EDT (1214 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Toy maker Fisher-Price is recalling as many as 10 million of its battery-operated Power Wheels because the items pose a fire risk.
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The Consumer Products Safety Commission, which on Thursday announced the voluntary recall, says the toy has resulted in 150 fires that caused minor burns to at least nine children and $300,000 in property damage to 22 homes and garages.
Some of the fires allegedly started while the vehicles were stored. In some cases, however, fires occurred while children were driving the cars. Parents were able to rescue those children before serious injury occurred.
The agency received an additional 700 reports of electrical components failing or overheating, causing smoke or melted parts.
"This
is a fire waiting to happen in your home," Ann Brown,
the commission's chairman, told The Washington Post.
The CPSC is advising parents to remove the car's batteries
-- either one or two 6-volts -- immediately, until the toy
vehicle can be brought into one of about 400 specially designated
Fisher-Price repair shops for free overhauls of battery
connections and fuses.
Between 2.5 million and 10 million of the child-sized cars
will be subject to recall and repair, Sean Fitzgerald, a
spokesman for Mattel Inc., the parent company of Fisher-Price,
told CNN.
The recall applies to all Power Wheels vehicles made prior
to October 1, 1998, Fitzgerald said.
Unsold Power Wheels are immediately being removed from the
toy shelves and repaired. Those cars, and any others made
after September 1998, will feature a new tamper-proof fuse
and a rechargeable battery that has a reinforced plastic
connector, officials said.
Barbie Jeep, Big Jake and Extreme Machine are three of the
Power Wheels models sold by Fisher-Price, which retail for
between $70 and $300. When the child presses the car's accelerator,
the vehicle travels up to five miles per hour.
An earlier model of the Power Wheels vehicle was voluntarily
recalled in 1991 by its original manufacturer, Kransco Power
Wheels, according to CPSC documents. The Power Wheels Porsche
automobile often failed to stop safely due to faulty contact
points in the vehicle's then 18-volt battery.
Fisher-Price acquired Kransco in 1994.
Company officials say Fisher-Price has about 400 repair
centers in the United States. The centers can be found through
the Power Wheels hot line at 1-800-977-7800. Parents also
can check the toy's Web site at www.powerwheels.com.