Victims of fires and other burn injuries are often left with physical and psychological scars, which can make overwhelming medical bills and lost wages pale in comparison.
When a burn injury results from another’s negligence, such as an apartment landlord failing to follow the housing code or an accident on the job, the victim may be able to seek compensation for these and other losses.
Insurance adjusters, landlords, and others will work hard to minimize payouts to burn injury victims. That’s why it’s important for victims to contact an experienced fire and burn personal injury attorney as soon as possible after an accident to determine whether they are owed compensation for their injuries.
Have you or a loved one suffered a burn injury? If so, contact our burn injury attorneys, free of charge, to find out if you can recover compensation for physical pain, medical bills and other damages. There is no cost or obligation to have your claim reviewed by a Morgan & Morgan attorney.
Fire Injury Lawsuits: Types of Claims
Our burn injury lawyers handle lawsuits involving:
- Apartment building fires
- Workplace injuries
- Truck accidents and tanker explosions
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Electrical cord fires
- Defective products
- Locked fire exits
- Scalding water and pipes;
- Electrical accidents
- Recreational fires (hotel, restaurant, retail outlet, nightclub)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Burns can be caused anywhere a flammable or hot object exists.
Is Your Apartment Safe?
Many common instances of burn injuries occur in buildings and homes with landlords, including public housing. Though it occurred where you live, sometimes in these instances the fire might not be your fault. Despite this, there are landlords who will pressure tenants into not taking action against them, despite their negligence being the cause of a fire and subsequent injury. Landlords have a responsibility to keep their properties in as good a condition as possible, and that includes following codes and basic safety standards. But they don’t always live up to that responsibility. If they don’t maintain it to proper standards, and a fire starts and injures the tenant as a result, it’s possible they could be held liable for the damages.
Some of a landlord’s responsibilities regarding fire safety can include:
- Ensuring the property’s electrical wiring is in good condition, and safely installed;
- Making sure smoke alarms are on the property and properly located
- Having a safe, sturdy fire escape;
- Keeping the fire escape clear;
- Installing fireproof doors;
- Having regularly serviced fire extinguishers on the property; and
- Keeping escape routes clear in shared areas of a building, such as the hallway or laundry room.
Negligent Landlords
Neglecting these duties and others is dangerous and can directly lead to injury in the event of a fire. Unfortunately, careless landlords who shirk their duties towards their tenants are more common than you would think.
Is Your Landlord Following the Law?
Even if an apartment building is a landlord’s property, the landlord still needs to follow the law. Along with rules about dangerous conditions such as broken staircase and slippery floors, there are international, federal, and state laws that dictate how a property manager must protect their tenants from a fire. These laws include rules about smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and more.
But not all landlords take these laws seriously. In fact, some apartment complexes even fail to comply with their own parent company’s policies and procedures for fire safety. In both cases, if a fire breaks out and a tenant is injured as a result, the property owner could be held responsible for not keeping their property safe for tenants or guests.
Smoke Detectors
A fire could start in the kitchen and go unnoticed due to a smoke alarm not installed in the right place, and a tenant could get injured in the aftermath. Smoke alarms are one of the most critical and often forgotten, aspects of fire safety. You can possibly encourage your landlord to take some steps with your smoke detectors to ensure your home is at your safest.
The National Fire Protection Association requires a smoke detector outside sleeping areas, plus one inside each bedroom. So at the very least, there should be two smoke detectors in every apartment, such as one in a hallway and one in a bedroom. A two bedroom apartment should have three smoke detectors, a four bedroom should have four, and so on.
Smoke detectors should also be hardwired with a battery backup. For added protection, they can be interconnected so if one goes off, they all go off. Your landlord could also have them installed by a certified electrician rather than a maintenance worker or apartment supervisor. A certified electrician can better ensure your detectors are working and in an appropriate location.
The type of smoke detector can also make a difference. Many apartment fires are slow-smoldering, and an ionization smoke alarm, which is cheaper and more commonly installed, might not detect an abundance of smoke. A photoelectric smoke alarm detects smoke much more effectively.
The NFPA recommends using both kinds, though most homes are only outfitted with the first one. Talk to your landlord about dual chambered smoke detectors with both technologies available to receive the best warning possible. Remember to test your smoke detectors once a month to ensure they’re working.
Fire Extinguishers
The absence of a fire extinguisher can cause a fire to spread and result in severe burns and astronomical medical bills. That’s lasting financial, physical, and emotional damage done to a tenant, all due to simple negligence by a careless landlord.
Your state or local code determines if your landlord is required to provide units with portable fire extinguishers, but you should know where one is located to be safe. Fire extinguishers may not be in your unit, but the NFPA and other applicable codes likely require an extinguisher to be present on your floor or in an easily accessible area.
Can I File a Negligence Lawsuit?
In the event these precautions don’t work, you may be able to file a lawsuit against your landlord. However, there are instances where landlords use the language of a lease to convince or pressure tenants to not proceed with a lawsuit. So it’s important to understand your rights as a tenant, to avoid getting taken advantage of by your landlord.
Some leases may have you waive your right to a jury trial in a personal injury lawsuit against a landlord. But in states like New York or Tennessee, a provision like that could be found void, and you would still have that right. Courts in states like Florida and Georgia can hold a landlord responsible for damages if you can successfully prove negligence on the landlord’s part.
Morgan & Morgan’s fire injury attorneys have experience navigating local laws and reinforcing tenants’ rights, and are willing to work to get you compensation and hold irresponsible landlords responsible after they’ve failed to meet their legal obligations. If you’ve been injured in a fire caused by a landlord’s carelessness, contact us for a free evaluation of your case.
Sometimes Products Fail to Protect You
Landlords are responsible for installing and maintaining equipment like smoke detectors and fire extinguishers on their properties. Unfortunately, some of these products do not always work as intended. But in the case of a fire, a serious defect in a product intended to alert or protect families from a fire can be potentially life-threatening.
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Ionization smoke detectors have come under question for allegedly failing to detect slow smoldering fires in a reasonable amount of time. Of the three types of smoke detectors — Photoelectric, Ionization, Ionization-Photoelectric combo — ionization smoke detectors are the cheapest to purchase, the most commonly used, and the type of smoke detector found in the majority of deadly house fires. Ionization smoke detectors reportedly take 15-30 minutes longer to sound an alert than other alarms. As a result, the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Iowa have banned them, and lawsuits have been filed against manufacturers of ionization smoke detectors, such as Kidde, Inc., BRK Brands, Inc., and USI Electric, Inc.
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Williams-Pyro’s Range Queen, StoveTop FireStop, and other manufactured fire suppression devices for stove ranges have also been met with allegations of product defects. These devices, which magnetically attach to a vent hood and hang above the stove, are used as a one-time fire suppressant. In the event of a fire, these devices are supposed to activate and drop sodium bicarbonate powder on the flame to suppress it. However, there is no apparent evidence that these products actually extinguish fires. Worse yet, the activation of products like the Range Queen can reportedly cause hot grease to splash out of pans on the stove. This not only potentially spreads the fire even further, but can cause grave burn injuries to those in the splash range. As a result, the United States Air Force, Navy, and Army have banned the use of all such products in military housing. Unfortunately, these products are still found in apartment complexes, including low-income housing, all across the country.
Burn Injuries Sustained at Work
Burn injuries are far too common in the workplace, with fires and explosions alone causing 5,000 such injuries each year, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. When an employee suffers a burn injury at work, they may be able to file a workers’ compensation claim. Workers’ compensation is a type of insurance which provides employees who were injured on the job with wage replacement and medical benefits.
In exchange for these benefits, the employee forfeits their right to sue their employer for negligence. Because insurance companies will try to limit payouts or deny benefits entirely, workers who have suffered a burn injury on the job should speak with an attorney immediately to discuss their legal rights and options.
Workers’ compensation benefits do not offer payment for pain and suffering, loss of life’s enjoyment, loss of consortium or disfigurement; however, these damages may be available for burn injury victims who pursue third party claims.
In these cases, the worker will fill a suit against a third-party, such as a subcontractor or product manufacturer, to seek damages which may supplement their workers’ compensation benefits. Our burn injury lawyers handle both workers’ compensation and third-party claims stemming from a number of accidents including refinery fires, chemical plant explosions, construction site accidents and chemical exposure.
Though first-degree burns can heal quickly, second, third and fourth-degree burns can cause severe injury and disfigurement. In addition to areas like car accidents and medical malpractice, burn injuries are one of our specific practice areas.
Our Burn Injury Attorneys Are Here for You
If you or a loved one has faced a severe burn injury, contact our burn injury lawyers today for a free consultation. The statute of limitations in some states limit the amount of time a burn injury victim has to file a claim, so contact us as soon as you can.