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Pennsylvania Kerosene Recalled Over Burn Injuries Concern

A potentially dangerous batch of kerosene is being recalled by Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the Pennsylvania company announced last week. The kerosene has the potential to cause fires in space heaters that use it as fuel, leading to burn injuries and property damage.

The voluntary recall concerns kerosene sold between December 10 and December 18. It concerns as much as 2,000 gallons of kerosene. The company announced the recall after two reports from customers — one that the kerosene didn’t smell right, and another report of a space heater fire.

The company did say that any space heaters containing the fuel would be replaced as an incentive for customers returning the fuel.

The company is smart to try and entice returns of the product. Even though they’ve issued a voluntary recall, the company could face personal injury lawsuits if the kerosene malfunctions and leads to injuries or fires.

The company produces 15 million gallons of fuel every day. Kerosene comprises only a small amount of that fuel. In total, 5,000 gallons of kerosene was tainted in production, but the majority of the bad fuel was still in storage.

Even so, the 2,000 gallons that did get sold to customers could pose a serious liability to the company until it either recovers all of the bad fuel or gets assurances that the fuel has been used without incident. It could be a long period of time before the company can rest easy knowing that they have likely escaped the majority of its kerosene liability issues.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, “Kerosene recalled over safety concern,” Andrew Maykuth, Dec. 21, 2012