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We had a similar experience regarding a burning bulb. We smelled a strong odor of an electrical fire in our kitchen. After searching for 20 minutes we discovered it was our kitchen light fixture. Two of the five 20 watt bulbs had black and brown singe marks where the glass coil meets the bottom plastic (?) part of the bulb. We immediately removed the bulbs. I called GE to complain and after prodding the CSR she finally admitted that she has taken calls in the past about smoldering bulbs although she said that they will not catch fire and are made of self-extinguishing materials. Great to know, but if you have a lamp shade or something that is flammable in your light fixture the bulbs are a definite fire hazard. The CSR said that occasionally when the bulb is about to "die" but before it burns out completely there may still be electricity running through the bulb. This in turn can cause the bulb to smolder (her words exactly) until the bulb dies. This is very disturbing. Potentially any of your CFLs could smolder until they burn out. She said it doesn't happen all the time but does occasionally. Well, it only takes one occurance for someone's house to burn down! I've contacted our local news station and they're going to do an investigative report on this next week.
Very scary.
GE's solution- sending me a form letter and some coupons. No thanks!