December 14, 2015 around 6:40pm I was driving home from work on highway 275E at approximately 70 mph approaching the 71N exit ramp. Car and driver's seat heater had been running about 8 - 10 minutes. I smelled a burning smell. I was wearing jeans. When looking around to figure out where smell was coming from, my left leg came in contact with seat, I felt a "bite" sensation on the back of my leg - immediately I thought perhaps my seat was was on fire. I didn't see any actually flames, so I turned off seat heater, and opened the windows - hoping to cool off the interior of the car to prevent any smoldering in the seat to advance to a fire (sounds a stupid now, but at the time it seemed to make sense). Continue driving with one hand, windows down, and fanning seat with the other. With the windows down, the smoke/burning smell dissipated. By the time I got home (about another 10-15 minute drive from the initial occurrence), the seat had cooled. I observed a burn spot on driver's seat where I felt the "bite" on the back of my leg. I also thought my jeans were burnt; however, that turned out to be transfer from the burnt material from the seat - I was able to scratch most of it off with fingernail. Also, my skin was not injured. I will be contacting my local Mazda dealership today.

- Lebanon, OH, USA