Pittsburgh area consumers purchase products every day designed to make their lives easier. While these products, such as clothing dryers, do undoubtedly reduce the time and energy it takes to complete the task of cleaning clothes, unfortunately, there are many ways in which a seemingly safe product can cause harm to a consumer. One of the most commonly reported issues with a variety of defective products is fire breaking out.

A Pennsylvania couple is all too aware of this reality. They recently filed a lawsuit against Electrolux Home Products Inc. due to the damage one of its dryers allegedly inflicted upon property. According to the complaint, something happened with the dryer that caused a fire to start. The fire caused damage, characterized as "extensive," to property in the couple's home.

The lawsuit alleges the manufacturer was negligent in multiple ways including for not testing the dryer to ensure that it was safe. In addition to negligence, the couple alleges a breach of warranties and strict liabilities. It claims the product had all three types of defects: design, manufacturing and marketing. In addition to attorney's fees, delay damages and costs, the couple is seeking more than $100,000.

While the couple claims to have suffered great property damage, they were lucky in that it does not appear that either was physically injured. This is particularly good because burns are usually quite painful and take a long period of time to recover from. During this usually extended period of time medical bills often mount. Situations involving such injuries also often lead to civil lawsuits.

Source: The Pennsylvania Record, "Property damage suit filed against Electrolux Home Products over dryer-causing fire," Jon Campisi, May 8, 2013