The Country Comfort wood stove blamed for a fatal Clearfield County fire.
PITTSBURGH – The maker of a Country Comfort wood stove is blamed for the death of a Clearfield County teenager who was the victim of a house fire in November 2023.
The Estate of Asher Deets sued several companies related to Orrville Products, also known as Country Comfort, Nov. 25 in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. The lawsuit says in the overnight/early morning hours of Nov. 27, 2023, the fire from the stove ignited wood around it, causing a massive fire.
Deets, who was 17 years old, died in the fire. He had planned to join the Marines once he graduated from West Branch Area High School.
“Defendants were aware or should have been aware that the end users of their residential wood stoves and/or other individuals (including children) living in residential properties… would expect their residential wood stoves to be designed and manufactured in a way that it would be safe to place and/or store materials, including bark, wood and/or other materials, on and/or in the vicinity of Defendants’ residential wood stoves,” the suit says.
John Pinto and Jonathan Woy of VSCP Law represent the plaintiff, who seeks wrongful death and survival damages. They describe Deets’ death as a rush by firefighters to locate him on the second floor while he succumbed to smoke inhalation before the house collapsed.
A state Department of Transportation worker saw the fire at 3:14 a.m. while driving by. Firefighters arrived eight minutes later. News reports say the other occupant of the house was able to jump from a second-floor window.
The fire prevented firefighters from entering through a second-story window or going up the home’s stairs before the house went down at 4:05 a.m. An autopsy showed Deets died from burns and smoke inhalation and that 95% of his body was burned.
The design of the stove is called defective in the lawsuit, considering the defendants knew users would store burning material nearby.
“No adequate warnings were provided with and/or displayed on Defendants’ wood stove to appropriately convey to users and/or other individuals (including children) living in residential properties where Defendants’ wood stove was in use of the significant risk of fire if materials… were placed on and/or located in the vicinity of Defendants’ wood stove,” the suit says.
The suit seeks damages for the pain Deets suffered and the fear, plus his future earnings.
