Millions are used without problems.

But a fire destroyed a Hudson resident's kitchen. According to fire investigators, the fire in Ann Mau's kitchen began in the microwave.

Mau said, "I entered the house and looked down the hallway and saw black billowing smoke coming out of my kitchen."

Hudson Fire Chief Bob Carter said, "We determined that the origin of the fire was in the microwave in the area of the control panel. And it was apparently caused by some kind of electrical or mechanical defect in the control panel of the microwave."

The microwave was not even turned on.

"What is most puzzling to me is how this could happen?" Mau stated.

Mau came home to find flames shooting from her GE microwave.

Mau said, "The firefighter told us five more minutes (and) we would have lost our whole first floor, not to mention it could have been our whole house."

That's not the only mysterious fire NewsChannel5 found.

A second report by fire investigators in Michigan blamed a malfunction in another GE microwave.

And a third fire at another home pointed to another GE microwave or the area near it.

The homeowner, Ron Nicol, said "What caused this fire? Nothing was on."

Nicol and his wife were not even home when the fire broke out.

"(It was) wery suspicious to us," Nicol said. "We had just returned from a vacation celebrating our one-year wedding anniversary, so we hadn't used the microwave in forever."

The official fire report found the cause was undetermined.

Nicol's wife said, "It was just black all along around where the microwave was. It was burnt and they had the whole microwave pulled out, and (the charred box) was sitting over here in our family room."

GE said the cause is currently under investigation and also said "evidence suggests it had nothing to do with the microwave itself."

But in regards to the fire in Mau's home, GE sent NewsChannel5 two different statements about what happened.

The first GE letter said it had "determined there was a fault in the electrical control panel of the microwave."

And two hours later, GE changed its story. They said, "We are not ruling out the possibility of a malfunction ... but we are also looking at other information." See GE's second letter.

GE also told NewsChannel5, "These types of random failures are rare and do not indicate a systemic problem."

But for consumers whose homes have caught fire, there are lots of unanswered questions.

Mau said, "It's scary. It's scary to think what could have been."

The complaints in this report involved GE over-the-range microwave ovens. GE told NewsChannel5 that it has received 13 reported incidents of smoke damage or scorching of adjacent cabinets last year. But the company also said it has an admirable safety record with more than 12 million in use.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington has asked that if you have a complaint to let its officials know.

CPSC investigated similar complaints five years ago and failed to find a defect. See the CPSC Letter.

Related Links:

• To report an incident to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, fill out the Consumer Product Incident Report
• General Electric Customer Service