Robe engulfed in flames due to defect

HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The daughter of a Connecticut woman who died when her bathrobe caught fire says she is suing the online seller, alleging the robe was dangerously defective.

Sharon Davis said her mother, Atwilda Brown, died Feb. 12, 2005, in her South Windsor, Conn., home, when her chenille bathrobe brushed against her electric stove's burner while she was making a hot drink for herself, WFSB-TV in Hartford and The Hartford Courant reported Wednesday.

Brown called 911, but suffered burns to 35 percent of her arms and back and died several weeks later in a burn center, Davis said. Police and fire officials said they had never seen material burn so rapidly, she said.

Blair Corp., the Warren, Pa., company that sold the bathrobes, sent a recall letter this past April to customers who had purchased one of the garments designated a fire hazard by the Federal Consumer Protection and Safety Commission.

"When my mother died, all of her mail was forwarded to my address. My husband and I were just beside ourselves and it proved that it didn't have to happen," Davis said of receiving the company's notice addressed to her mother four years after the fatal incident.

The family's wrongful death suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court, seeks $30 million.

Nine people have died allegedly because of the flammable robe. The company, which said it doesn't comment on pending litigation, issued another recall last week, bringing to 300,000 the number of items recalled, the news sources reported.