Insurance company sues over Bellefonte fire

Sept. 27--The Apple display at Wireless Made Simple was supposed to keep the products safe.

Instead, it threatened the whole store, according to a new lawsuit.

The Bellefonte business burned in January 2015, causing $180,000 in damage.

The lawsuit brought by Penn National Mutual Casualty Insurance says that Vanguard Products Group, of Oldsmar, Fla., is to blame.

"Unfortunately, the fire started inside a shelf in a display, so we could not see the exact cause, but we know where it was and how it spread, which was minimal," store owner Eric Bruckner said last year as the store was planning its reopening. "The fire department got there quite quickly and extinguished it. The heat and smoke is what got the place good."

The South Allegheny Street store burned when the Vanguard Protex Global security device securing and displaying the iPhones "overheated and caused a fire, resulting in water, smoke and fire damage," according to Penn National's filing.

The suit, filed in U.S. Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, called the device "unreasonably dangerous and unsafe for its intended use."

This is the only current federal suit open against Vanguard. It is the 25th since 2002, but those have been largely related to patent and infringement issues.

Lori Falce: 814-235-3910, @LoriFalce

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