Now that you have a better idea of what it is:
- Are you sure there was an actual flame, or is is possible that it was a yellow/orange ball of something else? I.e., was there light emitted?
- Is there any apparent residue? Toner particles, dusty orange gunk, etc.?
If this is simply a monochrome (black & white) laser printer, new ones are available starting at roughly $100, so repairing your current printer may be more expensive.
What is the make and model of your current printer?
It looked like a flame.
I don’t see any residue on the printer or on the side of the fridge next to the printer.
It is a color printer. It is a Brother HL-L8036CDW
I think that model is discontinued but might have sold for about $450. The cheapest new Brother color printer is about $300 to give you a point of comparison when thinking about repairing this one.
In the meantime, I hope you can sleep peacefully, knowing the issue is resolved.
Add me to the chorus of Dopers who are glad for a safe resolution!
And kudos to @MrDibble for pushing into that as possible culprit!
Wow. Interesting mystery! Glad solved.
I knew it would be solved!
I would unplug it, open it up, and take a look.
Look for burned or discolored areas.
In my experience, once a device emits flame, it usually doesn’t do it again, so I find this unusual.
Have your friend bring a voltmeter and check the voltage coming out of that wall socket. A new power cord won’t make something like a printer go POP, but bad wiring in the building definitely could…
That’s actually an interesting idea.
A bad neutral connection in the breaker box could result in 240V appearing on that outlet, but it would probably happen on all other circuits in the apartment. Do the lights get brighter sometimes?
No, the lights stay constant.
The printer was not plugged directly into an outlet. It and a few other things are plugged into a power strip. I haven’t had any problems with any of the other items. OTTOMH Pugged into the power strip are- my tv antenna with built in amplifier, my flatscreen tv, my work laptop, my personal laptop, and my router.
The router was previously plugged directly into the outlet. But, I needed that outlet for a space heater.
That’s a lot of stuff to connect to one circuit. Perhaps you’re exceeding or close to exceeding the circuit capacity?
I’m glad that you’ve figured it out, and that you can keep yourself out of danger either by fixing or replacing the printer. You’re keeping it unplugged for now, of course.
It’s possible that the printer has an accumulation of dust and cobwebs inside it, which could cause shorts. If so, it should be easy to open it up and blow out the dust.
Space heaters draw a lot of current. The other devices are not high-current items, at least not individually. But in any case, I’d expect a breaker to trip if the circuit were overloaded.
That’s assuming a properly working circuit breaker. Given the other issues reported in the apartment, it’s no certainty that the electrical system is in good condition.
Yes, foreign objects causing internal short. Slugs, mice, etc. Ive had some fried circuits, (and dead things) due to this.
Toner itself is conductive and flammable - that was my thinking, that somehow some small amount of toner is getting out, aerosolizing and being set off. Like if the cartridge was cracked while moving or something.
I have running the situations twice now we’re regular plugs at 220 going to them I would verify the voltage at that outlet
Yeah, the magic smoke (or in this instance, flame!) normally only comes out just the one time.
I suppose it’s possible that some contamination was the thing that was shorting out and only the contaminant got burnt - like an insect crawling into some part of the PSU, then later, another one.