Narrative:

Crew landed in ZZZZ. Crew wrote up the following 2 mels:1. 25-70 all outlets inoperative - deferred per MEL; maintenance procedure accomplished. 2. 25-70 gfi (ground fault interrupter) cover damaged - by sink in galley deferred per MEL; maintenance procedure accomplished. Aircraft flew from ZZZZ to ZZZ the next day and maintenance was set up to address the above mels. While technicians were troubleshooting the system they found the following: 'the galley outlet in question is working now so I'm guessing the enormous toaster shown is being used directly underneath the outlet area and tripped the gfi and also melted the laminate. Definitely need to examine the gfi underneath though as you can see the black melted plastic coming from the holes. The crew is lucky they didn't set the galley on fire. I'm thinking [company] safety should be involved with this to issue a warning to flight crews. They shouldn't be using such big toasters in such a confined area. It's a potential disaster waiting to happen.'in summary; the toaster was operated in very confined area with a low ceiling. The heat coming from the toaster melted the panel directly above it. This panel has the gfi installed in it which was also melted. Inspections of gfi and outlet wiring showed no defects leading us to believe the issue was not with the electrical system but rather the heat radiating from the toaster when it is in use. The plug of the toaster also showed no signs of damage. I am requesting an immediate investigation on how the toaster and other galley utensils that ops places on the aircraft after conformity are selected and can be guaranteed to be safe to operate on the aircraft. Also we need to express concern to the flight crew that using something that creates heat in a confined area is not safe and [can] lead to an inflight fire.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Maintenance Supervisor reported technicians found a large non standard toaster was used directly beneath an outlet area while working on an aircraft. The heat generated tripped the Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI) and melted the plastic panel above the toaster.

Narrative: Crew landed in ZZZZ. Crew wrote up the following 2 MELs:1. 25-70 All outlets inoperative - Deferred per MEL; Maintenance procedure accomplished. 2. 25-70 GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter) cover damaged - by sink in galley Deferred per MEL; Maintenance procedure accomplished. Aircraft flew from ZZZZ to ZZZ the next day and maintenance was set up to address the above MELs. While technicians were troubleshooting the system they found the following: 'The galley outlet in question is working now so I'm guessing the enormous toaster shown is being used directly underneath the outlet area and tripped the GFI and also melted the laminate. Definitely need to examine the GFI underneath though as you can see the black melted plastic coming from the holes. The crew is lucky they didn't set the galley on fire. I'm thinking [Company] Safety should be involved with this to issue a warning to flight crews. They shouldn't be using such big toasters in such a confined area. It's a potential disaster waiting to happen.'In summary; the toaster was operated in very confined area with a low ceiling. The heat coming from the toaster melted the panel directly above it. This panel has the GFI installed in it which was also melted. Inspections of GFI and outlet wiring showed no defects leading us to believe the issue was not with the electrical system but rather the heat radiating from the toaster when it is in use. The plug of the toaster also showed no signs of damage. I am requesting an immediate investigation on how the toaster and other galley utensils that ops places on the aircraft after conformity are selected and can be guaranteed to be safe to operate on the aircraft. Also we need to express concern to the flight crew that using something that creates heat in a confined area is not safe and [can] lead to an inflight fire.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.