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Ikea recalls 650,000 lamps due to risk of overheating

Swedish furniture giant Ikea on Tuesday recalled about 650,000 desk lamps sold in Europe, Asia and Australia since 2004 because of a risk of overheating.

Published: 17 June 2008 15:32 CEST

“The Swedish National Electricity Safety Board has tested the spot light and claims the construction of the lamp could create a risk of overheating,” the company said in a statement, emphasizing that it had so far received no customer complaints about overheating of its Femton lamp.

“Safety is always of highest priority at Ikea and that is why (the) Femton clamp spot light is being recalled as a precautionary measure,” the company said.

Tests showed the Chinese-made lamp, which has a flexible stem allowing the beam to be directed at will, can in some cases “be positioned with the bulb too close to a surface area, for example a wall,” Ikea said.

About 650,000 Femton desk lamps sold across Europe, Asia and Australia, including 47,000 in Sweden, were affected by the recall, an Ikea spokeswoman told AFP.

There was meanwhile no risk that another version of the lamp sold in North America would overheat, Ikea said.

The company said customers who brought back Femton lamps affected by the recall would receive a full refund.

A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021.

A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Anyone who has found themselves wandering the mazy aisles of an Ikea might be able to empathise with the sense of being lost in the furniture store for a seemingly indefinite time.

Such a feeling was probably more real than usual for six customers and 25 staff members who were forced to spend the night at the furniture giant’s Aalborg branch after being snowed in.

Heavy snow in North Jutland brought traffic to a standstill and halted public transport in parts of the region on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a snow-in at Ikea.

“This is certainly a new situation for us,” Ikea Aalborg store manager Peter Elmose told local media Nordjyske, which first reported the story.

“It’s certainly not how I thought my day would end when I drove to work this morning,” Elmose added.

The 31 people gathered in the store’s restaurant area and planned to see Christmas television and football to pass the evening, the store’s manager reported to Nordjyske.

“Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he said.

“We couldn’t just send them outside and lock the door behind them at our 8pm closing time. Absolutely not. So of course they’ll be staying here,” he added.

The temporary guests were given lodging in different departments of the store in view of the Covid-19 situation, Nordjyske writes.

“For us , the most important thing was to take care of each other and that everyone feels safe,” Elmose said.

At least Ikea’s stranded customers and staff had somewhere comfortable to lay their heads.

The same can unlikely be said for around 300 passengers at the city’s airport who had to stay overnight at the terminal.

The airport was forced to stop flights from 2:30pm yesterday amid worsening weather, which also prevented buses from transferring passengers to hotels.

“We have around 300 people in the terminal right now and have been giving out blankets on the assumption they will be staying here tonight,” Aalborg Airport operations manager Kim Bermann told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Ikea reopens in Denmark after country’s worst retail month this century

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