Rheem Ordered to Pay Burn Victim’s Family:...

Rheem Ordered to Pay Burn Victim’s Family: A jury ordered Rheem Manufacturing Co. to pay $15 million to the family of a 2-year-old boy who was burned in a fire ignited when other children spilled gasoline near a Rheem water heater. The Circuit Court jury agreed that the pilot light was so close to the ground it easily ignited the fumes. The panel awarded $3 million in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages over Andrew Scott’s severe burns to his legs, buttocks, back and arm in the 1991 fire at his home. The boy had been playing near the water heater in a utility room off the back porch. The New York manufacturer will appeal. “It’s most unfortunate that Andrew Scott was injured, but that accident was not caused by the water heater,” said Andrew Clausen, a lawyer for Rheem. “It was caused by an open can of gasoline which was left on the porch while a 2-year-old child was playing unsupervised.”