Preventable Fire Stories

A Port Arthur resident has filed a product liability suit against Sunbeam, alleging its defective air purifier started a fire that destroyed his house.

Walter Thomas says a fire started in his home at 2982 Manning St. in Port Arthur on Aug. 29, 2007.

He alleges the fire was caused by a failure within an air purifier that was designed by Sunbeam, according to the complaint filed May 21 in Jefferson County District Court.

Because of the fire, Thomas incurred costs to repair his home and incurred additional living expenses, the suit states.

“The damages total approximately $226,798.28,” the suit states.

more at LINK

Not the first air purifier fire I’ve seen.  Those are left on continuously.  

Given the expense and liability of hospital evacuations, wouldn’t it make sense to use my power strip as a shutoff for any potential smoke source?

Monday, October 27

GREAT BARRINGTON — The maternity ward of Fairview Hospital was briefly evacuated yesterday morning while firefighters determined the cause of smoke that was filling the room. Fire Chief Harry Jennings said yesterday that a bearing in an air purification unit in the ward overheated, filling the room with smoke.

Jennings said he evacuated the ward, which had three patients in it to another part of the hospital. He also called for units from the Sheffield Fire Department as backup.

more at LINK

Cutty Sark was undergoing a £25m restoration when the fire tore through her in May last year

Frank Pope, Ocean Correspondent and Fran Yeoman

The fire that engulfed the Cutty Sark last May, resulting in £10million damage, was caused by a piece of electrical equipment that was left on over the weekend, The Times has learnt.

The Metropolitan Police are expected to say today that a dust extractor was the cause of the blaze when it publishes the results of its investigation.

Officers are understood to have concluded that the power to the extractor was left on when workers at the site went home on Friday, May 18, which led to the equipment catching fire in the early hours of the following Monday. There were no sprinklers on the dry dock site in Greenwich, southeast London, because they had been removed while the ship was being repaired.

Detectives initially treated the fire as suspicious. However, a source close to the project to restore the 140-year-old ship told The Times: “The report says that electrical equipment failed mysteriously, early on Monday morning. The question is, why didn’t a fire alarm go off?”

LINK

My power strip, thoughtfully placed above the dust extractor, would have detected smoke and shut off the air purifier before flames erupted.  It also has a 95dB alarm.  Sooner or later an insurance company is going to realize the value of my device and get me into manufacturing.  £10million.  I would have saved them £10million 

About 83,000 IonizAir table top air purifiers, manufactured by Leaven Enterprise Co. in Taiwan, because the air purifier’s cartridge can overheat, posing a risk of fire. P3 International, the importer of the product, has received 10 reports of purifiers melting or catching fire and no reports of injuries.

The recalled air purifiers involve model number P4620 with lot numbers beginning with either 03 or 04 or have no lot number. The product was sold at various stores nationwide including mail-order and Internet retailers from January 2003 through July 2004. Details: by phone at 888-734-0449; by Web at www.getnewcartridge.com or http://www.cpsc.gov.

LINK

There are so many products coming from untested manufacturers lately, you could add a margin of safety by having them plugged into my product which would shut them off if smoke is detected.