Melissa & Doug is recalling about 84,000 Lights & Sounds Fire Truck Activity Boards because the fire hose port can come loose and detach, creating a choking hazard. The company has received 26 reports of the small port coming loose and one report of a minor cut. The toys were sold at Target stores nationwide and on Target.com from July 2025 through August 2026 for about $30, and the recall was announced on September 17, 2026 as number 26-780.
The remedy asks parents to destroy the toy before they are compensated, which makes the recall as much a logistics exercise as a safety one.
26 loose ports among 84,000 boards
The CPSC’s recall notice says it covers about 84,000 fire truck activity boards sold exclusively at Target. The toy is a compact red plastic fire engine measuring 10.5 inches high, 14.31 inches wide and 3.06 inches deep, weighing about 1.6 pounds, with spinning wheels, busy-board activities with lights and sounds, four black wheels and a white rotating ladder. In the notice’s words, the fire hose port “can come loose and detach,” a choking hazard that carries a risk of serious injury.
Twenty-six reports against 84,000 units works out to roughly one in 3,200 boards, and the notice adds the single minor cut. The sales window runs about thirteen months, from July 2025 through August 2026. The firm that received the reports is Melissa & Doug, based in Wilton, Connecticut, and the toy was made in China.
Date codes, since a toy has no serial number
Whether a board in a home is covered depends on a manufacturing date wheel on the battery compartment. Recalled units show the wheel pointing to 25 with the month set to 4 or 5, or to 26 with the month set to 3. The packaging may display the codes OET 25100, OET 25150 or OET 26064. Those codes are the only identifiers the notice offers for matching a toy to the recall.
A remedy that begins with a pair of scissors
Consumers must register at melissaanddoug.com/recall to receive one of three options: a free replacement, a $30 refund check or $40 in store credit. Registration requires removing the batteries, marking the product “RECALL,” cutting off the hose, photographing the destroyed toy and disposing of it in household trash. Questions can go to Melissa & Doug at 800-718-5365. WRAL’s consumer report on the recall repeats the same options and the CPSC’s advice to stop using the toy immediately.
The registration page at melissaanddoug.com/recall redirects to a separate recall-processing site, recallrtr.com/firetruck, which returned no readable content when checked, so the CPSC notice is the only available statement of the steps. The notice names Target only in the sales record: stores nationwide and Target.com, July 2025 through August 2026.
Retailer duties as CPSC defined them for Amazon
The agency has spent years defining how far a seller’s duty runs. On July 30, 2024, the commission unanimously determined that Amazon is a “distributor” responsible for recalling hazardous products sold by third-party sellers in its Fulfilled by Amazon program, covering more than 400,000 items including faulty carbon monoxide detectors, hairdryers lacking electrocution protection and children’s sleepwear that violated flammability standards. The commission found that Amazon failed to notify the public about those products and did not take adequate steps to encourage returns or destruction, and it directed Amazon to submit proposed plans for consumer notification and remediation. CPSC had begun the litigation in July 2021.
The follow-up, which shows what a retailer treated as a distributor can be made to do after a recall, came in a final order dated January 17, 2025, effective January 26, 2025, which required Amazon to notify the public, original purchasers and third-party sellers; to issue full refunds to consumers who destroy or dispose of affected products; to keep recall information on its website for five years; and to file monthly compliance reports for five years. Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Commissioners Peter Feldman, Douglas Dziak and Richard Trumka each issued statements supporting it.
The Target recall is a different arrangement, a toy that Target alone carried, with the manufacturer running the remedy. CPSC’s toy safety guidance makes ASTM F963 a mandatory standard for children’s toys under Section 106 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and refers to the small parts ban at 16 CFR part 1501, though the Melissa & Doug notice itself cites neither.
Registration runs through Melissa & Doug rather than through the 84,000-unit sales record at Target, so only the manufacturer knows how many of the boards have been registered for destruction, and it has not published a count. Until it does, the measured quantities are the 26 reports of the port coming loose and the one minor cut.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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