Pit Boss smoker burned up

[Kulprit]

Not sure if this has happened to anyone else, but wanted to let others be aware just in case. My Pit Boss Series 7 smoker bit the dust Saturday night. Apparently, the stray pellets within the auger caught fire, and the smoldering went up inside the pellet hopper. Ended up catching my deck on fire as well as damaging the smoker pretty extensively. I've had it since July 2019, and use it at once or twice a week minimum. It was well seasoned, the firepot was just shop-vac'd out so it was clean. It was unplugged and the fan was off. As far as I can tell, some wind may have stoked the fire through some entry point somewhere. Pit Boss is looking into all my pictures now and may possibly replace the entire thing.
Has this happened to anyone else? I'm afraid to put my next one on my wood deck in case this happens again. The reason it is there, I don't have a backyard egress door, so it's either on my 2nd floor deck, or outside through my garage. That is the most likely going forward, but it was nice having it right there next to my kitchen door for ease of access.

My pit boss pro PBV3P1 had a meltdown last night. I was about 8 hours into a cook when my wife heard a pop noise from the front deck and something stunk really bad like an electrical fire. I went outside and the underside of the grill and the control panel was on fire. I unplugged it and put out flames with an extinguisher. It still had plenty of water in the pan and the butts were wrapped in foil. No grease buildup or fire in the grilling area just all underneath and the front panel. I opened a case and waiting on a response. I have used it since March of this year with no issues to date. I wont be leaving a grill unattended again..that could have been very bad if hopper would have ignited. Extinguisher and water made a mess while moving to get to a safer location.

 

[Khaymanbb]

Pit Boss has a great customer service team. They sent out parts for everything that was damaged during my fire, so hopefully they help you as well. It does take them a couple days to get back. They want pictures of everything damaged on the unit, so I sent them a ton. They sent everything that looked damaged, even down to the legs and screws. I hope you have the same experience. I went ahead and bought another one, as my insurance covered it, so now I have two. Good luck with everything!

 

[HalfSmoked]

Man that sucks but things happen.

Warren