Rogers Wireless POE melted and caught on fire!

[Oznam]

Rogers began fixed wireless lte in my area as of September 2021. I replaced xplornet with rogers in August of this year.
I have a serious concern. An antenna is placed attached to your house pointed toward an lte tower. It is powered using a cat5 POE box located inside your house and a modem is also attached. On Friday I noticed my internet was down since this is my second property I initially thought it was a power outage. Called rogers said i need to be physically there to unplug to reset. Came up Friday night and called rogers. Upon plugging back in the POE box began to sizzle and smoke started pouring out. I unplugged it and it stopped smoking. Technician came on Saturday and said it was because the technician who installed left exposed wire etc. He fixed it and I had internet back up and running. As he was pulling out of driveway the poe box began to sizzle and smoke pouring out again( was already replaced). Called and he came back right away. He replaced outdoor cable and noticed that the bottom 1/3rd of cable was saturated with water which caused my poe power supply to fry and smoke.
Possible causes?
1) defective outdoor rated cable
2) bad install
3) defective antenna causing water to flow down via gravity over time on the inside of cable. Exterior was bone dry.
4) cable was flooded before install and it took long for gravity to bring it to the poe box

Now If I was not here I imagine my house would have been up in flames. I suspect that the large amount of rain last week exposed a weakness in the system.
Many people who have this system in Tiny are not full time residents. My concern is that Rogers has been installing this system and potentially may have same issue as me but do not know it yet. The technician has never seen this issue before. Worse if the owner is not home and they have the same issue as me I can guarantee we are going to see more fires. I am worried it may be due to defective parts etc. as the install is rather basic and seems foolproof.
I cannot believe that water made its way on the inside of the cable. Seems surreal to me. Attached you will find pictures of the POE box and melted cable. Had I not been here I have no idea what could have happened. I am hoping this is a one off freak incident but I fear others may have this issue. If you unplug it and unplug the cable I could feel the moisture etc. Fyi I have a dehumidifier and it was not possible for any water to have made its way into the cable from the inside of my house. My exterior cable is black outdoor rated and it was facing south so i imagine the heat from sun on roof dried out the top portion of the cable and gravity brought it in. The cable was also looped multiple times so there must have been some pressure involved with the sun aiding its movement. Please advise. I imagine rogers will compensate me for this and Hopefully the issue has been resolved, however, I fear others in area may have similar or worse outcome. I became aware of this as many neighbours were on the beach boasting about this over the summer. If we have a wet fall/winter this may lead to more issues. Who knows how many were installed and how many might experience what happened to me.

[RogersCorey]

Greetings @Oznam!

I'm sorry to hear of this frightening experience. It's absolutely not one to be dismissed but I do want to mention this is the first I've heard of such a thing happening. 

The cable loop you see is likely a drip loop which is intended to allow water to drip away from the building and equipment. I don't want to speculate too much on the potential cause as there's too many variables but I do want to address your concerns. 

Feel free to send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, you can find out more here.  

Regards,

RogersCorey

[Cory10]

The same thing happened to me. Tech replaced Poe Monday. Poe burned out Thursday. Smoke and sizzling. There is obviously a problem. I wondered why I felt moisture. Now I I know the problem. Rogers needs to investigate before someone loses a house due to fire. Tech can’t come to Saturday. At least I know what to tell him/her.

[RogersTony]

Hello, @Cory10

Thank you for reporting this issue to us. 

We would like to investigate this further and gather more details from you.

Please send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can get started. Not familiar with our private messaging system? No worries, click here.

RogersTony

[Bailey2010]

Rogers POD caught fire in my house a year ago and they are still charging me for the POD and won’t give me a credit for my electrician cost I have been fighting with them about this for a year and still nothing is happening even said it went to the desk of the president what a joke but they sure expect payment I’ve been a Roger’s customer for 30 years and this is the way they treat people it’s disgusting 

[RogersMaude]

Good morning @Bailey2010,

Thank you for taking the time to share your situation with us. We appreciate you took the time to bring this up to our attention.

Have you heard back from an advisor from the Office of the President, since you posted?

This is definitely an unsual set of circumstances. Please accept our apologies for any inconveniences this may have caused you.

If you require further assistance, please let us know!

RogersMaude

[Bailey2010]

Yes I heard back yesterday and the situation has been resolved

[EcmcOM]

The same thing happened to us while my husband and I were at church last May 4, 2025, this year we were residents from the rural area in Norfolk County, ON. The Rogers internet router antenna black box (the brand rogers installed in November 2024 was Nokia) was seated beside our 60-inch Sony TV. We got this service from Rogers since it is fiber optics which Bell. Ca don't offer for residents living on the country/rural or forest covered location/areas. What happened during the day the incident happened, the initial cause of the fire was undetermined. However, upon further investigation, examination of two fire experts in Norfolk County, ON and from our Insurance Claims pointed out that the electrical ignition did show that the “melted the Rogers internet router antenna box,” was the cause and ignited the fire at home — covered in heavy smoke were our living room and kitchen areas badly damaged. Our neighbors from that hamlet told us it was heavy smoke and little flames. They mentioned some passersby came and tried to hose down our house and heavily knocked, banging the door, but to no avail. A neighbor who called 911 said it took some time for the Firefighters to arrive.  These ares were located on the right side of the top main floor of the house. But the most devastating, saddest and heartbreaking part we lost our pet, our dog 3 years and 5 months-he was a half lab, half golden retriever; who was in a crate (a few inches away), near the window and the long wooden coffee table where the big Sony TV was, beside the Rogers antenna box that blasted.  We cancelled our Rogers services for that matter, and we are currently staying on our relocation temporary residence provided by our Insurance. Had we checked out Rogers first how their digital box works pros and cons, like we learn later on after our experience, we did our research. We found out cases of the same digital internet relay or antenna box home fire incidents from Rogers company digital fiber optics, services. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/rogers-modem-fire-nearly-burned-down-house-says-on... It definitely needs further improvement. A deeper look into their digital products offered to the public of what could have been avoided (the Dos and Don'ts) by consumers and residents who availed of the products and services to assume safety and security at home at all times. Also, we availed of Rogers promotional offering for its fiber optics digital internet services, half of the price since last year compared to other subscriptions or competitors around. My husband and I discussed it and finally availed of it last November 2024 since we want to do full streaming of apps and cut our Bell Satellite receivers. Had we known this, we could have stayed with Bell.ca, since we have been with Bell for more than 20 years and could have avoided such tragedy and ordeal. 

[RogersMaude]

Good morning @EcmcOM,

Thank you so much for bringing this up to our attention. My heart goes out to you, and your family during this trying time. 

Firstly, I am very sorry for your loss. I know first-hand how a pet, especially a beloved dog you've had for years, is just like a family member.

We'd like the opportunity to take a deeper look into this and forward your feedback to the team in charge for review, to ensure we do everything in our power to prevent a similar situation from happening again.

To do so, we'll need access to the account in question. Please send a private message to @CommunityHelps when you a chance, so we can get started. 

For more information on our messaging system, click here. Thanks!

RogersMaude

[AccordXTC]

@RogersMaude I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that @EcmcOM sounds like AI posted reply. For someone to "have" had an issue like that, would be in the news and also not something someone's posting on here vs direct with Rogers.

They also have linked to an article that is no longer valid.