Samsung Range Fire Lawsuit Claims Defective Knobs Inadvertently Activated, Ignited Materials on Burners

Insurer claims Samsung took no action to fix its electric range knobs despite hundreds of reports of them accidentally turning on, resulting in dozens of fires and injuries.

A Minnesota-based insurance company is pursuing a lawsuit against Samsung, alleging a stove with defective burner knobs accidentally ignited and caused a fire in the Iowa home of a policyholder, leading to significant property damage.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by North Star Mutual Insurance Company on behalf of their policyholder Zach Boelkes in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on April 17. It names Samsung Electronics America Inc. as the defendant.

The insurer claims Samsung knew for years about defects with its electric range knobs, citing hundreds of reports of unintended activation, fires, injuries and pet deaths. However, the company failed to implement safety measures or issue a timely recall until August 2024, more than one year after the fire at Boelkes’s home.

Samsung Electric Range Fire Lawsuit

The lawsuit alleges that a knob defect affecting certain Samsung ranges led to a 2023 fire, which caused significant damage to Boelkes’s home. North Star insured the property in Iowa and paid out on the damages linked to the claim.

According to the lawsuit, the Samsung range had front-mounted control knobs that could be turned on accidentally, sometimes without the user realizing it. Boelkes alleges Samsung knew about the problem as early as 2013, pointing to the recall report, which states the company had received more than 300 reports of accidental activation, along with 250 fires, 40 injuries, and seven pet deaths linked to the ranges.

In August 2024, Samsung finally issued an electric range recall, yet that was only after Boelkes’s home caught fire as an alleged result of the defective range knobs.

International standards require that the stove knobs feature a two-step push and turn activation to ignite the stove burners. However, the Samsung stoves were easily “activated unintentionally if sufficient force is applied, by either a person or pet in the household,”  the lawsuit states. Samsung also did not include a knob stopper or knob cap to prevent accidental ignition.

The insurer’s lawsuit indicates Boelkes turned off the electric stove and went grocery shopping. Later, he placed the groceries near the range before going to bed. At some point the knob was bumped, accidentally igniting the heating element. He awoke to find a fire that caused extensive damage and destruction to the home and contents. Boelkes filed a claim on his policy and North Star paid out in excess of $75,000.

“Despite Samsung’s prior awareness of the many hazardous incidents of inadvertent range-top heating element activation resulting in fires, Samsung took no action to address the issue until August 8, 2024, when it issued a recall of the Subject Model Range and other ranges having range-top heating element controls that were identical or substantially similar to the controls on the Subject Range, and offered corrective measures to alleviate the known hazards posed by the defective controls.”

– North Star Mutual Insurance Company v. Samsung Electronics America Inc.

The complaint raises allegations of negligence and strict product liability. North Star is seeking compensation for damages, punitive damages, and reimbursement for legal expenses.

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