BOY BURNED BY CIGARETTE LIGHTER LEFT BY APARTMENT MANAGER IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
Burns are extremely serious injuries in children and lead to over 116,000 children being treated for fire and burn injuries. Over 40,000 of these children each year require hospitalization and over 500 of these children die from fire and burn-related injuries. Over the past few years, there has been an increase in lighter-related fires and burns associated with misuse by children. Cigarette lighters are easier to ignite than matches, in many cases, so younger children more frequently are involved in lighter-associated fires and burns. Generally it is unattended children who start these types of fires and adult negligence is to blame.
This is tragically what happened to one of our client’s. He was a seven year old boy who lived in an apartment complex with his mother. The apartment house manager agreed to baby sit the boy when the mother had to go to work, so the boy was taken to the manager's apartment. The boy's mother did not smoke, and the boy had not seen a cigarette lighter before he was at the manager's apartment. The mother never taught the boy not to play with matches or cigarette lighters as the boy had not been exposed to these before. The manager was a smoker, and had a cigarette lighter. While the mother was at work, the boy watched as the manager would light one cigarette after another with the lighter. The manager had to go out to a tenant’s apartment, and left the lighter on the table next to the boy. While the manager was out, the boy started to play with the lighter, and lit himself on fire. The boy was severely burned with third degree burns by the time the manager came back. The liability policy that covered the apartment complex paid for the negligence of the apartment manager, and we were able to settle this case for many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If your child has been burned or injured in a lighter or match related accident, please call our law offices at 1-800-ALAWPRO (1-800-252-9776) for a free consultation. We cannot stop the injury from having happened, but we may be able to get you proper monetary compensation to help care for your child for the rest of his or her life.
