Waco Explosion & Fire Attorney

The carelessness of another person starts many fires. Equipment that fails like space heaters, water heaters, and electrical appliances cause many fires, according to our Waco explosion attorneys. The mishandling of flammable items, including cooking, firecrackers, candles, lighters, cigarettes, and matches, also is the cause of many fires. This can cause catastrophic injuries, including electrocution, suffocation, burns, and death. Our Waco explosion attorneys investigate and pursue claims involving fires and explosions. Our firm handles a variety of fire and explosion cases, including:

Car Crash Fires: Often the result of an auto defect, a vehicle may catch fire and lead to an explosion of the car. The likelihood of a car crash fire increases with the poor maintenance of gas tanks and fuel lines. Not only are these fires dangerous for anyone in the car, but they could also harm any bystander.

Chemical Burns: If you work with chemicals, you need to handle them with care. If chemicals are misused, improperly stored, or mishandled, they could cause significant burns. Not only are burn injuries painful, but they can also result in permanent scarring.

Home Fires: Texas leads the nation in residential fire deaths. There are about 73,000 total fires in Texas per year. That resulted in more than 700 injuries and 160 deaths. Residential fires are often caused by cooking issues, faulty heating equipment, electrical and lighting problems, and smoking materials. The Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office shows the following causes for commercial and residential fires in the state.

Landlords generally must adhere to local and state laws designed to protect tenants from a variety of hazards, including those related to fires. Fire and burn injuries often occur in the home, with tenants of apartments, including public housing, potentially at risk of severe, life-altering injuries. Landlords generally must follow select city, state, and even federal regulations designed to keep their tenants safe from harm.

Some of the landlord responsibilities regarding fire safety can include:

• Electrical wiring in good condition
• Working smoke alarms properly located
• Fireproof doors
• Keep fire escapes clear
• A sturdy fire escape
• Regularly serviced fire extinguishers on the property
• Keep escape routes clear in shared areas of a building, like a hallway or a laundry room

To prevent house fires, smoke outside. Keep ashtrays deep and sturdy. Do not discard cigarettes in mulch or potted plants. Stay in the kitchen and check your food often. Ensure your chimney is clean before using it. Keep flammable items like mattresses and blankets away from sources of heat.

Fires Caused by Electrical Appliances: Electrical equipment can be dangerous if the product’s malfunction, are improperly plugged in, are wired dangerously, or if they are misused. In any case, electrical appliances might glitch and spark, causing electrical shortages, fires, or other dangerous issues. Improper product design is one way in which a product can lead to serious injury or death. Appliance fires are most often caused by malfunctioning outlets, bad wiring, improper installation, overheating, and faulty materials. Improper warnings and instructions can also create catastrophic injuries.

Electrocution: Electrical issues like loose wires, poorly secured cords, broken outlets, and faulty installation can lead to electrocution. An electrical flare-up can cause fires too. It is essential to examine if property owners fail to repair electrical issues or if they fail to ensure the building is up to code. Most electrocution and electric shock injuries happen on unsafe premises. You might be able to sue under a premises liability or work injury claim.

Plant Explosions: Many plant explosions are preventable. Plant explosions that injure or kill employees, contractors, or even bystanders are avoidable and tragic. Power plants, waste plants, chemical plants, refineries, and other similar facilities have several dangerous elements on the premises, and if a worker is careless, or if the manager fails to enforce safety protocol, significant mistakes can occur. As a result, toxic chemicals and hazardous machines can lead to deadly fires and massive explosions.

Faulty Water Heaters: Some water heater models, especially those with older designs, can be dangerous. Faulty or negligent installations are common reasons for a water heater to explode. Hot pipes might catch fire near flammable materials or chemicals, or malfunctioning heaters could cause explosions when they first turn on, which can cause a house fire.

Pipeline Explosions: Pipelines are used across Texas to carry oil, gas, butane, and other substances as a cost-effective alternative to transportation by truck or rail. The gas distribution, gas gathering, and gas transmission pipelines must be constantly maintained because of the danger that the pipelines pose to the public. Unfortunately, these pipelines can explode, sparking massive fires. These deadly explosions happen because of the flammable substances in the pipe, the age of the pipe and their maintenance history. There is not a unified regulation for pipelines, which means we rely on the pipeline companies to prioritize safety. Pipeline explosions often occur when the company has failed to make safety a priority. This results in a pipe that is poorly maintained, has failing equipment, or a problem with the mechanics of the pipe.

Faulty Space Heaters: Heating equipment issues are one of the leading causes of all home and commercial fires. Unfortunately, these devices are also inherently dangerous. They can become extremely hot. Space heaters can be extremely hazardous if left unattended or if placed near flammable materials. If a space heater overheats or sparks nearby curtains, carpet, debris, or other materials, it could cause a devastating fire. There are several space heater defects that have the potential to cause injury. Some of the most common include the following:

• Defective fans
• Defective oscillating mechanisms
• Defective thermostats
• Faulty auto-shutoff switches
• Improper materials used in construction
• Insufficient warnings regarding use
• Defective temperature controls
• Poorly constructed or attached electrical wiring
• Poor design making the likelihood of burns or fires more likely

If you were injured because of a space heater malfunction, we will investigate the cause. In many matters, the malfunction is caused by faulty wiring within the heater, or a design or manufacturing defect on the part of the manufacturer. Some of these defects are known by the manufacturer before sending it to consumers.

Workplace Burns: Otherwise safe jobs can be dangerous when people are careless. Workplace fires occur because of electrical issues, heating problems, or other issues related to lights at work. When the work environment contains heavy machinery or toxic chemicals, the fire might have occurred because of misuse, equipment malfunctions, or operation errors.

Lithium-Ion Batteries: These batteries are popular sources of stored electricity. But they can overheat, starting a fire and injuring those using the device. These batteries are used in a lot of electrical products, including BlueTooth devices, cellular phones and cordless phones, electric cars, electronic cigarettes, digital cameras, laptops and tablets, power tools and garden tools, smartwatches, scooters and bicycles, toys, and GPS devices.

We are experienced, aggressive trial lawyers who are committed to our client’s success. We are here to answer your questions about personal injury matters. Our Waco fire explosion attorneys have decades of experience in these complicated matters. If you suffered a fire in Waco, then call our attorneys at 254-753-6437 to schedule a free consultation. Since 1925, our family-owned law firm has helped other Central Texas families in times like these. Let us help you too. These Waco explosion attorneys are routinely involved in Waco personal injury lawsuits: