An urgent recall has been issued by Kidde, a fire safety manufacturer well known for its fire extinguishers. At the moment the recall includes about 38 million fire extinguishers “that can clog and fail to deploy,” according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). So far Kidde has received “reports of 16 injuries, from smoke inhalation to minor burns, and 91 cases of property damages associated with the defect.”
An urgent recall has been issued by Kidde, a fire safety manufacturer well known for its fire extinguishers. At the moment the recall includes about 38 million fire extinguishers “that can clog and fail to deploy,” according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). So far Kidde has received “reports of 16 injuries, from smoke inhalation to minor burns, and 91 cases of property damages associated with the defect.”
In addition to the injury and property damage reports, the CSPC also reported that the same extinguishers malfunctioned when first responders arrived at the scene of a fiery car accident back in 2014. In that crash, a 22-year-old Pennsylvania man, Brendan Rosko, was killed after his car crashed into a “tree and burst into flames on the side of King Road in Malvern, Pennsylvania.” Moments after the crash, first responders “unsuccessfully attempted to quell the blaze with two Kidde extinguishers, both of which malfunctioned,” according to the CPSC.
So why exactly are the extinguishers failing so often? Well, according to reports from the CPSC, the extinguishers “with plastic handles can become clogged, require excessive force to discharge, or even ‘fail to activate’ during a fire emergency.” Ann Marie Buerkle, the acting Chair of the CPSC said, “the purpose of the recall is to alert the consumers that there is a very easy fix.”
Wondering what the easy fix is? Well, consumers who have one of the recalled extinguishers can contact “Kidde at 855-271-0773 for a free replacement with a metal handle.” A list of the model numbers included in the recall can be found on the CPSC website.
Sources:
Nearly 38 million fire extinguishers recalled
Massive government recall covers 37.8 million Kidde fire extinguishers
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