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Fire and Burn Injury Lawsuits

Situations in which people have been injured in a fire or burned and need legal representation for their personal injuries include:

  • Workplace hazards – Dangerous working conditions could lead to various types of burn injuries. Factory employees and construction workers use equipment every day that could cause fires and burns. A restaurant employee may even get burned from hot surfaces in the kitchen.
  • Defective products – Due to design defects, products can potentially overheat or catch on fire and cause damage to the user. The products most likely to cause burns are those that use batteries or combustible materials.
  • Car accidents – When there is a serious car accident, there is a high risk of the car’s gasoline igniting and setting the entire vehicle on fire. Passengers and drivers in car accident fires could suffer severe or fatal burns.
  • Truck accidents – Fuel tanker truck accidents could cause massive explosions that would be fatal to any person within the blast radius. This explosion could cause a chain reaction of explosions and fires from the surrounding vehicles.
  • Gas and fuel explosions – Any situation where natural gas, propane, or other types of fuel are used could cause an explosion or fire. These situations include propane tanks, gas pipelines, gas furnaces, and water heaters.
  • Chemical accidents – These types of accidents are commonly mistaken to occur only in science labs, however ordinary household products such as bleach, pool chlorinators, teeth whitening products, and concrete mix all have the potential to cause chemical burns.
  • Apartment fires – Fires in apartment buildings are caused by cooking accidents, arson, faulty fire alarms, unattended fires (candles & smoking), heating devices, and electrical issues. A large number of apartment fire injuries are because of negligent landlords not maintaining a safe living environment.
  • Hotel fires – Fires in hotels are caused by negligent hotel staff and owners, cooking mistakes, and faulty fire or smoke alarms. Hotel owners often fail to take proper safety precautions for fires.
  • Scalding injuries – These types of injuries involve hot liquids or steam and cause deeper damage than burns from dry heat. Scalding injuries are caused by high-temperature water from showers, baths, faucets, and high-temperature liquids from hot beverages.
  • Faulty electrical system – Electrical fires are caused by faulty electrical systems such as exposed live wires, faulty outlets, old appliances, overuse of a power source, broken light fixtures, overuse of extension cords, and defective heaters.
  • Arson – Willfully setting fire to a property is a crime that is punishable by the law. This malicious act could lead to severe or fatal burns of innocent people.

Negligence Leads to Fire and Burn Injuries

Thousands of victims are dealing with the aftermath of accidents that resulted in fire and burn injuries.

Who is at Risk

  • Women and children in residential settings
  • Employees in industrial workplace settings
  • Children ages 5 and under
  • Low and middle-income households

Occupations at Risk

  • Firefighters
  • Electricians
  • Construction Workers
  • Health Care Professionals
  • Landscapers and outdoor workers
  • Mechanics
  • Restaurant Workers
  • Janitors

Types of Burn Injuries

  • Thermal
  • Scalding
  • Radiation
  • Chemical
  • Electrical

Workplace Burn Injury Lawsuit

Some workers face a high risk of burn injuries. Researchers found in a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that workplace fires and explosions are responsible for more than 5,000 burn injuries a year. Any employee who experiences a burn injury in the workplace is entitled to workers’ compensation, however, in order to receive this benefit, the injured employee will not have the right to sue the employer. Another option is to take legal action and file a burn injury lawsuit. Victims of workplace burn injuries who are looking to file a lawsuit against their employers will be seeking out experienced law firms.

Apartment Fire Lawsuit

Victims of apartment fires could have suffered injuries and a loss of valuables and belongings. To compensate for the damages caused by the fire, residents will seek legal representation to hold the responsible parties liable. Landlords could be the responsible party liable for a burn injury, and they will do everything in their power to pay the lowest settlement amount to burn and fire injury victims. Based on federal law, landlords have a responsibility to their tenants to keep them safe from fires, and a failure to take the necessary precautions could lead to an injury or wrongful death. If a landlord fails to follow the rules and someone gets injured or hurt as a result of it, tenants can hire a burn and fire injury lawyer to ensure that they get the rightful compensation they deserve. Law firms currently accepting apartment fire burn injury cases can find fully signed claimants with Broughton Partners, a leading legal case generation firm.

Wildfire Lawsuit

A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire that occurs in wildland areas, but these fires also have the potential to reach populated areas such as neighborhoods. Wildfires go unnoticed when they first begin, but they will quickly spread to residential areas by igniting any nearby flammable objects such as trees and brushes. Civilian homes and agricultural resources have been decimated by wildfires, causing enormous financial and emotional damage to families and businesses. Thousands of Americans have lost their lives from wildfires. Many of these unplanned fires occur most frequently in the western areas of the US, especially in Southern California and bordering areas of Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon.

2004

A construction worker was electrocuted when he struck an underground electrical line with a drill. The man suffered third-degree burns to over 20 percent of his body and several amputations. A $25 million settlement was awarded.

2008

A 40-year-old construction worker, was burned alive in his car because he could not escape after a motor vehicle accident. The man’s estate was awarded $2.5 million.

2017

A plaintiff suffered second-degree burns to 20 percent of his body from an explosion caused by an improperly installed gas valve for a dryer. The jury awarded damages of $6.9 million.

2018

A $9 million settlement was secured from Kernen Construction Co. and Bundy & Sons Logging for damages resulting from a 2012 wildfire that destroyed more than 1,600 acres of national forest land.

April 2019

A worker suffered third-degree burns to over 90 percent of his body from scalding water in a workplace accident. The man was awarded $9.75 million in damages.

July 2019

A high-school student suffered third-degree burns after a teacher’s science experiment went wrong and set Alonso Yanes on fire. A Manhattan jury determined that Alonso’s former teacher and the New York Department of Education to be liable for the accident. A settlement of $60 million was given to Alonso.

References

U.S. Fire Administration. “U.S. Fire Statistics”, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Accessed February 26, 2019.

National Fire Protection Association. “Home cooking fires”, NFPA.org. Accessed February 26, 2019.

National Fire Protection Association. “Home Fires Started by Smoking”, NFPA.org. Accessed February 26, 2019.

Eric Perez MD, Maryann Foley, Ronald Karlin MD. “Classification of Burns”, University of Rochester Medical Center. Accessed February 26, 2019.

Ed Drantch. “UNDER FIRE: Fury when smoke alarms don’t sound in smoldering fire”, WKBW Buffalo. Accessed February 26, 2019.

Jenna Marie. “When Is a Landlord Guilty of Negligence?”, SFGate. Accessed February 26, 2019.

Andrew Latham. “Tenants’ Rights After a Fire”, SFGate. Accessed February 26, 2019.

National Interagency Fire Center. “Statistics”, National Interagency Fire Center. Accessed February 27, 2019.

Cleve R. Wootson Jr. “The deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California’s history has finally been contained”, The Washington Post. Accessed February 27, 2019.

Stanford Children’s Hospital. “Fire Safety and Burns–Injury Statistics and Incidence Rates”, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Accessed May 16, 2019.

World Health Organization. “Burns”, World Health Organization. Accessed May 16, 2019

Zia N, He H, Mashreky SR, et al 795 Gender-related characteristics of burn injury patients presenting to designated burn centres in South Asia Injury Prevention 2016;22:A284-A285.

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