This action involved an incident wherein Plaintiffs, both minors, were severely burned as a result of an explosion caused by Defendant’s water heater.

Defendant negligently designed and manufactured its products in a manner wherein the water heater sucked the flammable vapors from a nearby gasoline container and causing the container to explode.

Since the mid 1970s, Defendant had been aware that the fires/explosions similar to the case at hand often start after a common household product like gasoline, paint thinner, or some other cleaning solvent is spilled. The flammable vapors are heavier than air and tend to hug the floor and flow across it like a liquid. The fumes, which can travel long distances, ten (10) or more feet, get sucked into the air intake of the water heater’s pilot light and burner, and then burst into flames.

Prior to Plaintiffs severe burn injuries, Defendant have been aware of a simple solution that would simply involve retrofitting or recalling the subject heater and having the subject water heater raised 18 inches off the floor so that the pilot is moved away from the ground-hugging vapors to prevent ignitions. Despite being aware of the subject defect, and thousands of severe burn injuries, Defendant failed to remedy or sufficiently warn of the subject defect.

Also, during the mid 1990’s the water heater industry conducted research and development that lead to a flame retarding design that used a sealed combustion chamber,
a limited combustion air intake and a flame trap. The design traps flammable vapors, which are then burned inside the heater’s combustion chamber in a controlled process so
as to prevent a flash back. Other less technical designs were available such as using a direct vent water heater approach such that the combustion chamber is sealed and
combustion air is drawn into the combustion chamber from a higher elevation. Either of these designs, if implemented and marketed would have significantly reduced the
flammable vapor hazard and would have prevented the fire and serious burns that occurred. The subject water heater was defectively designed and manufactured since
subject water heater could ignite flammable vapors that were produced by inadvertently spilling a flammable liquid near it. The explosion was preventable.