A national ban has been placed on decorative portable ethanol burners after they caused more than 100 injuries and 36 house fires across Australia.
The decorative burners, which I suppose give your backyard / home the ambiance of a suburban Italian restaurant or something like that, are usually filled with methylated spirits, ethanol or bio fuel.
Federal Small Business Minister Michael McCormack placed a 60-day interim ban on the products until a longer-term solution can be determined. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had advised him that the burners pose a “risk of serious injury.”
Last year, a widely publicised set of photos showed a Perth woman who received serious injuries after an ethanol burner exploded in her backyard:
Much of the danger of these things comes from the fact that there’s scarcely regulated in their design, and many of them allow users to refuel them in the same opening the fire comes out of. Seeing as very hot fires can be near invisible, that is without question a terrible idea. As McCormack outlined:
Many of these products allow the user to refuel the device in the same opening as the burner. The flame is often hard to see and injuries commonly occur when consumers refuel burners which are still burning. This can cause intense uncontrolled fires and fuel bottle explosions.
Victoria, NSW, Queensland and WA already banned the products back in December after numerous reports of accidents and injuries.
Products intended for heating and cooking, as well as the larger ones with proper safety features and instruction, are all exempt from the ban.
Source: 9 News.
Photo: Alibaba.
