18 March 2012
A six year old boy has been awarded €4500 in damages after suffering a traumatic asthma attack as a result of a fire caused by a faulty Beko cooker. The attack was caused by smoke inhalation when a faulty Beko cooker caught fire on February 27, 2011.
The
Irish Independent 14.3.12 reported that a spokeswoman from Beko described the incident as a “once off”.
The judgement follows the verdict of “death by misadventure” on 9 December 2011, in an Inquest concerning the deaths of two pensioners in Ireland, both of whom allegedly died from fumes emitted from Beko-made gas cookers.
In 2008, a 21 year old student died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Cork, reported to have been caused by a Glen-Dimplex cooker, supplied by a Beko-run factory. In addition, three deaths occurred in the UK which were allegedly related to Beko and Glen Dimplex cookers, between November 2008 and January 2009.
Following reports of these deaths, Beko issued a
safety notice and the company admitted in a statement on 11th December 2011 that, "If the grill door is closed when the grill burner is in use, an unsafe build-up of carbon monoxide can occur which can be fatal."
The affected Beko, Leisure and Flavel cookers with a separate oven and grill model numbers are listed on Beko’s website which can be seen
here. The warning concerns a number of the 49,000 cookers in the UK and Ireland, and Beko re-issued its public recall appeal following the inquest verdict on 9th December in an attempt to trace those cookers that have not yet been modified.
Beko has also had to issue
safety notices about its fridge/freezers in recent months as fire experts recommended that owners of Beko frost-free fridge freezers check their models after a number of devastating house fires.
Leigh Day and faulty consumer products
Specialist
product liability lawyers at Leigh Day have extensive experience of dealing with
defective consumer goods, including white goods that have caused death or injury. The team has been identified by Chambers guide to the legal profession and by the Legal 500 as the UK’s number 1 firm in this field. The team has secured significant amounts of compensation for people who have been injured by faulty medical devices, unsafe drugs and other consumer products such as dishwashers or home hair dye kits. If you would like to speak to one of our specialist product liability solicitors please contact
Jill Paterson on
020 7650 1219.
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