Burn Injury Lawyer

What Causes Burn and Fire Injury Lawsuits?

Here are different situations in which plaintiffs have been burned and could take legal action.

Workplace hazards – A dangerous workplace could lead to various types of burn injuries. Those who work in factories and construction use equipment every day that could cause fires and burns. A restaurant worker may even get burned from hot surfaces in the kitchen, such as a stove. 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.

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.

Landlords are required to follow the law and specific fire safety obligations, however, there may be instances where the landlord has followed the safety laws but the equipment ends up failing. This would be considered a defective device lawsuit.

Manufacturers that made defective fire-safety products can be held liable for selling products that did not perform as intended. A defective fire-safety device will put a person’s home, apartment, and family at a higher risk of fires and burn injuries.

Car accidents – A serious car accident may cause a fire and the occupants of the vehicle could suffer serious 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 and pool chlorinators could cause chemical burns.

Apartment fires – These fires could be caused by cooking accidents, arson, faulty fire alarms, unattended fires (candles & smoking), heating devices, and electrical issues. Many apartment fires are the result of negligent landlords not maintaining a safe living environment.

Since apartment residents share a building with others, any of these residents could start a fire. Most apartment complex fires are caused by kitchen accidents. A 2017 report from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) on the leading causes of home fires found that cooking-related fires were responsible for 45% of injuries and 48% of deaths. If a fire starts in another tenant’s kitchen and spreads throughout the building, then all other tenants must face the same consequences of an apartment fire. In some cases, one resident may lose more to the fire than the resident who started the fire.

Other significant causes of apartment fires are smoking, candles, and heaters. According to the NFPA, smoking is the number one cause of deaths related to home and apartment fires and 1 out of 5 deaths at a home involved a heater.

Negligent Landlords are also a major cause of apartment fires. It has become common for landlords to shirk their responsibilities to the tenant. State and federal laws require proper placement of fire alarms, sprinklers, and fire extinguishers. A failure to follow these laws could lead to a burn injury lawsuit in which a person’s landlord must pay damages to the tenant. Some landlords do not take these laws seriously and the apartment residents suffer from their negligence.

To compensate for the damages caused by an apartment fire, residents will need legal representation to hold the responsible parties accountable. 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.

Hotel fires – Fires in hotels can be 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 burns – These types of injuries are caused by hot liquids or steam and result in deeper damage than burns from dry heat.

Faulty electrical system – Electrical fires can be caused by faulty electrical systems such as exposed live wires, faulty electrical outlets, improper use of power sources, broken light fixtures, and defective heaters.

Arson – This includes purposely using fire to destroy property and is a crime that is fully punishable by the law. Arson could cause severe or fatal burns to innocent people.

Provided that the correct level of fire safety is applied, many fires can be prevented. In some cases, burn and fire accidents involve someone else’s negligence. Some of the factors that increase a person’s level of risk from these hazards include:

• Faulty fire alarms
• Failure to replace batteries on fire alarms
• Improper use of fire security