‘I thought that the stove had exploded’: Lawsuits allege some Pam cooking spray cans caused fires, severe burns

May 07-- May 7--Six lawsuits filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court allege some of Conagra Brands' cooking sprays, including leading brand Pam, have severely burned people due to a faulty can design.

The suits accuse Chicago-based Conagra of selling dangerous and defective products that catch fire during common cooking use. They also allege Conagra failed to adequately warn consumers of the risks.

At issue is a certain type of aerosol can with vents at the bottom that open to relieve pressure when overheated. The lawsuits allege the vents opened even when the cans were stored and used in a "reasonably foreseeable manner," and that the liquid that seeped out contained propellants such as propane and butane that ignited fires.

"I'm still shocked at the fact that something I use on a day-to-day basis just exploded and changed my life forever," Y'Tesia Taylor, 23, one of the plaintiffs, said in an interview.

Conagra, whose broad portfolio of brands includes Healthy Choice and Slim Jim as well as Pam, declined to comment on pending litigation. But in a statement, spokesman Dan Hare said that "the safety of our products and our consumers is our top priority.

"Pam cooking sprays have been used safely by millions of Americans for more than 50 years for baking, grilling and cooking," Hare said. "This stands as a testament to both the effectiveness of the product and its safety with proper use."

Hare said Pam, which is used in 95 percent of U.S. households, carries warning labels about its flammability on the can advising consumers not to leave it on a stove or near a heat source and not store it at temperatures of more than 120 degrees. In response to a previous lawsuit filed last year by a woman in Cincinnati making similar allegations, Conagra in court filings denied liability and said the plaintiff failed to read or heed warnings on the canister. That case is pending.

But J. Craig Smith, a Connecticut attorney representing the plaintiffs in that case and the six lawsuits filed Tuesday, said the warnings are inadequate. "No one knows what the heck 'near' (a heat source) means," Smith said.

The newly filed lawsuits -- which involve plaintiffs living in Illinois, Texas, New York, Utah and Indiana -- specifically target a can design with u-shaped vents at the bottom. Smith said the cans with vents are typically found in containers of at least 10 ounces and sold in packs of two.

Each suit claims that the cans were capable of venting at temperatures lower than Conagra's standards allow and violate government regulations for aerosol cans. They also claim negligence as the product "was designed and advertised to be used around stoves/grills, and had no adequate warnings about possible dangers of doing so."

Conagra removed the vented can from active production earlier this year, three years after introducing it, "as we sought to standardize our cans across the entire aerosols cooking spray product line," Conagra's Hare said in a statement. The vented design was used on a limited number of cans over the last several years, and has not been used in the vast majority of the product sold, he said, though the company "fully stands by the product."

"To reiterate, the vented can design is no longer in production," Hare said in a statement. "And, when PAM is used correctly, as instructed, it is a 100-percent safe and effective product."

Lawsuits involving cooking spray cans have been filed against Conagra in the past, but the suits filed Tuesday are the first in Illinois and the first filed as a group, Smith said. Another suit was filed Monday in New York federal court by a different law firm.

A search on saferproducts.gov, the reporting tool run by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, did not reveal any incident reports involving cooking sprays. Smith said he plans to file complaints with the agency. He also wants Conagra to recall the vented cans that remain on store shelves.

"We are aware of the report and we are looking into it," said Patty Davis, spokeswoman for Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Taylor said she was hosting family members at her home in Greenville, Texas, in July 2017, after the funeral of a family friend when she ran to Walmart to get Pam cooking spray for a peach cobbler.

She sprayed the baking dish and set the Pam canister on a rolling wooden cart adjacent to the stove, according to her suit. After placing the cobbler in the oven and closing the door, "she heard a loud noise as the canister suddenly and without warning began spraying its extremely flammable contents through the u-shaped vents on the bottom of the can and exploded into flames," her lawsuit states.

In a 911 call that was submitted as evidence in the Cincinnati case, Taylor can be heard screaming in the background while a family friend explains to the dispatcher what happened.

"All I know is there was a big fireball that went up in the sky and she comes out running, says 'I'm burning,' laying on the floor; by the time she gets up her skin is peeling off of her arm and her face," the caller says.

Taylor's suit states she sustained "burns, scarring, disfigurement, blindness in her right eye, and lung damage." In an interview, Taylor said she suffered second and third-degree burns on 27 percent of her upper body and spent more than a week in a medically induced coma.

Taylor, who worked as an overnight manager and auditor at a hotel before the fire, said she was "let go because I didn't fit the image anymore due to the scars I had."

She is concerned about her eldest son, 5, who saw the whole thing happen and often talks about how his mother died in a fire.

"Now I'm having to figure out how to get my life back together and my kids back together after something so simple," said Taylor, who now works as an inpatient clerk at a veterans hospital.

In addition to Pam, the suits also name Wellsley Farms and Sysco cooking sprays, private-label brands that court documents say are made by Conagra.

One of the plaintiffs was working as a cook at the Berryhill Baja Grill in Houston when he moved a can of Sysco spray on a shelf below the grill top from the left side to the right side of the shelf and was suddenly engulfed in flames, according to his suit. A video of the incident was filed as an exhibit in the Cincinnati case.

Brandon Banks, 37, said he was cooking pasta sauce for his girlfriend, Andrea Bearden, at a family member's house in Mt. Carmel, Ill., one May weekend last year when a can of Pam that sat on a shelf about 2 1/2 feet above the stove suddenly hissed and fell onto the stove. The couple are plaintiffs in one of the new lawsuits.

"I heard a loud boom and the next thing I knew there were flames everywhere," said Bearden, 36, who had been sitting on the arm of a love seat about five feet away from Banks. "I thought that the stove had exploded."

Banks, who was airlifted to a burn center in Louisville, Ky., said he suffered second-degree burns on his arms and hands. He said he lost his factory job because it took several months before he could return to work.

Banks, who doesn't have insurance, has yet to pay a $64,000 bill for the airlift and worries about other hospital bills he has yet to see.

Bearden, who works as a waitress and also doesn't have insurance, was burned on her face and shoulder. She said the medical bills are so intimidating she doesn't look at them anymore.

"It's an everyday routine, cooking for a significant other, and suddenly your face gets blown up," she said.

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