Safety Agency Files Suit Over Black & Decker Toaster Recall

Three days after Black & Decker Corp. started a recall of about 224,000 of its Spacemaker Optima Horizontal Toasters, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission filed suit against the company, saying it isn’t satisfied with the recall program.

The government’s primary reason for the suit, filed Thursday, is “lack of public notice,” said commission spokesman Ken Giles.

Giles said the commission has requested that the company mail notices to retailers and consumers, and include warnings at the point of sale.

The lawsuit alleges that the design of the toaster creates a substantial risk of kitchen fires when a toast cycle is completed, the commission said, a front glass door automatically opens and the food rack juts out. The toaster door will open even if the food items are on fire, creating the potential for flames to spread into the kitchen, the agency said.

Black & Decker spokeswoman Barbara Lucas said the company was surprised by the complaint.

“The CPSC has taken the position that the recall is not effective, even though the recall has received broad coverage and the agency has not had sufficient time to judge its effectiveness,” Lucas said.

Lucas added that Black & Decker has sent out notices to retailers and consumers, as requested by the commission.

Black & Decker said a point of dispute in the recall--a demonstration filmed by the agency showing the toaster catching fire and causing a kitchen fire--was rigged.

“It was a rigged demonstration,” Lucas said. The video “showed a cause-and-effect relationship that was predetermined.”

“We have done everything they wanted. . . . The issue at hand is a video news release which we believe is completely unrealistic,” Lucas said.

The commission’s tape shows that with “burning food in the toaster, the toaster door opened, the burning food came out, and within moments it had ignited the cabinets” set up for the video, Giles said.

“We encouraged the company to show that, to show the level of risk,” Giles said.

Lucas said the video “doesn’t approximate real life.”

“I am at a complete loss as to why the CPSC would take this approach,” Lucas said. “We have always taken a conservative view on recalls.”

Black & Decker, based in Shelton, Conn., three days ago issued a news release saying it was aware of 242 reports of fires and of two minor injuries involving the toasters, but that the fires had caused only minor damage, to kitchen cabinets. The company stopped making that model in February 1995, and notified the product safety commission the next month, Lucas said.