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A woman showed the aftermath of attempting to fry up a hashbrown when her Costco air fryer exploded.
Abbey Trbovich, who goes by @abbeytrbovich12 on TikTok, posted the footage and it quickly went viral. The video has amassed over 4.2 million since it was posted on November 4.
In the video, Trbovich pans the camera through her apartment and stops at a charred kitchen stove and counter. In the sink sits a black and melted pile of plastic that was nearly unidentifiable.
The video also showed the significant damage to their stove and the floor beneath the stove. The on-screen text explained that their Costco purchased air fryer blew up inside their apartment.
"[Ten] firemen and one hash brown later," read the caption of the video.
Over 4,415 users felt compelled to respond to Trvovich's video, many asking which air fryer she had and others blaming her for "not reading instructions."
Others warned that an air fryer should never be placed on top of a stove.
While it's still unclear the exact model of the air fryer, an online instruction manual for a commonly purchased Costco air fryer warned consumers never to place their air fryer on anything that is combustible, such as tablecloths or curtains.
The manual also warns that the air fryer may potentially heat the surface it sits on, and also explicitly states that users should not place the appliance "on or near a hot gas or electric burner, or in a heated oven."
When the appliance is placed on top of a stove, residual heat from the stovetop can melt the air fryer and cause it to combust.
In the comments, Trbovich mentioned that she accidentally turned the stovetop on while the air fryer was on top. Luckily, no one was injured during the fire, but one commenter said they weren't as lucky.
"I did that...melted the whole thing," one user mentioned about accidentally turning their stovetop on with the air fryer still on top. "I caught it b4 it caught on fire tho. 2nd degree burns."
Others in the comments claimed to be Trbovich's neighbors, and some seemed upset that they had to evacuate their apartment, pets in tow, because of the mistake.
"Hi neighbor," one user commented. "I had to carry my two cats out at 10AM bc of an air fryer and stovetop combo??"
Trbovich replied that she was "so sorry" and that she and her roommate owed their neighbor a drink.
Others in the comments were begging Trbovich to drop the name of her particular air fryer model. But some mentioned that the brand didn't matter because the situation was due to user error.
"Why are you blaming Costco or the brand of air fryer when it was the user's error?" one user asked in the comments.
But this is not the first case of an air fryer going up in flames. In June, a 4-year-old girl alerted her parents when she noticed the air fryer on fire after her dad made chicken nuggets and french fries.
Once the parents saw the fire, the girl's father grabbed the air fryer with his bare hands and threw it into their pool, News4Jax reported. The family's stove was completely destroyed by the fire.
The father said the air fryer was not plugged in and that there was no food inside at the time of the fire. He said that he had finished cooking the fries and chicken nuggets about 30 minutes before the fire.
But the residual heat from the machine combined with the fact that the air fryer was left on the stove is most likely what led to the fire. The father suffered minor burns on his feet but no one else was injured.
Newsweek reached out to Trbovich and Costco for comment.
About the writer
Samantha Berlin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on trends and human-interest stories. Samantha ... Read more