A product that has repeatedly been involved in fires and serious burns is the water heater. The water heater is the appliance you never think of, standing off in a corner. But the ordinary water heater often has a pilot light that is always on, and if flammable fumes get to the pilot light of an improperly designed water heater, the results are catastrophic.
Product Liability Burn Attorney for Iowa
This is what happened to Rich Webster when he was burned over 63 percent of his body in 1992. Fumes from the acetone he was using drifted low to the floor to a water heater in a utility closet down the hallway and ignited.
The water heater industry knew about a simple technology for years — flame arresters — that could prevent fires and frightful injuries. But it refused to change the design, saying the existing design was good enough. The Consumer Product Safety Commission finally mandated the flame arrester technology for all water heaters manufactured after 2003.
Faulty Product Litigation in Missouri and Wisconsin
No wonder our firm takes a special interest in rooting out defective products that cost people their skin, their looks and their lives.
Primary offenders are defective water heaters, which are still in operation in millions of homes and businesses. But many other products also cause fires and generate lawsuits — furnaces, propane tanks, gas control valves, clothes dryers, cigarette lighters, motor vehicles and clothing.
Another example of a defective product is the recently recalled flammable gel fire pots that have caused countless burns. Defective products like these are still in the marketplace.
Obtain Burn Accident Compensation
Think of the horror of a fire that envelops someone you love because an appliance company refused to modify an unsafe design. To save a few dollars, people's lives are ruined.
At the Illinois and Iowa offices of lawyer Richard Webster, we will not rest until the last fire-igniting, defective product is taken off the market or changed.
If you have been in a defective water heater burn accident, or have been injured by any other defective product, call or e-mail Illinois faulty equipment burn injury attorney Rich Webster and ask how you can seek compensation.
