The overall gist of this testimony is that is it IMPOSSIBLE for a fire to ever originate inside any refrigerator and extend to the exterior of the appliance.


Q: Is there anything in this particular written report from ICS, other than obviously their opposite conclusions, that you find is inconsistent with your theory of how this fire happened, cause and origin?

A: Yes

Q: What’s that?

A: The rest of his note on Paragraph 6.

Q: Page 6 you mean?

A: I’m sorry, page 6.

Q: Feel free to detail for use what it is you feel is inconsistent.

A: That description is entirely wrong.

Q: What about the description, in your opinion, is wrong?

A: This opinion that a fire inside a refrigerator will consume the plastic and other flammable items until it can burn through the gasket seals is physically IMPOSSIBLE.

Q: Why do you suggest, sir, in your opinion that’s physically impossible.

A: Because there’s not enough oxygen inside the refrigerator to support that.

Q: If a fire is burning inside the refrigerator, could the gasket seals burn away in one part before the other parts of the gasket, as much as you described the top part of the gasket seal burned away first in your theory of how the fire happen? (Note: His theory is a unattended food on the stove)

A: No

Q: Why not?

A: Because the fire can’t burn long enough to reach the gaskets.

Q: So in your opinion, because of the amount of oxygen available inside the insulated volume of the refrigerator, are you saying that it’s IMPOSSIBLE for a fire to burn long enough to carry outside of the refrigerator?

A: YES


Before you ask here is the case info:

Supreme Court of the State of New York – Queens

Speller v. Sears Reobuck, Whirlpool, et at Index No. 9536/96

Deposition testimony of Stephen G. Boughton (in-house fire expert for Whirlpool)

James G. Munger, PhD, FIFireE, CFPS
www.qdotengineering.com
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