Former NYC official's face ‘sizzled' after Bath & Body Works candle exploded: suit
A former City Hall official claims she was seriously hurt when she lit a Bath & Body Works candle and it exploded, sending 'searing' hot wax into her face and arms.
Renita Francois' life has been 'irrevocably changed' since the Jan. 19, 2023 incident in her Valley Stream, LI, home, when a three-wick 'Sweater Weather' candle exploded as she leaned in to take a whiff, sending 'a shockwave of fire and debris directly into her face,' according to a lawsuit.
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3 Renita Francois, center, seen here with Mayor deBlasio and his then wife, Chirlane McCray, was a frequent public speaker in the years before the incident.
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3 The incident left the mother of two with second degree burns on her face, her eyelashes melted off and her eyebrows singed away, she said in court papers.
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The heat of the blast left her skin 'sizzling,' singed off her eyebrows, melted her eyelashes and left her face and arms seriously scarred, the mother of two claimed, calling the pain 'instant, unrelenting, and beyond anything she had ever experienced.'
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Her husband McEvans 'witnessed his wife's face catch fire, crackle, and blister as molten wax burned her skin,' the couple said in legal papers.
Francois, 41, was rushed to the emergency room but said the aftermath of the incident has 'fractured' her confidence.
The second-degree burns ignited 'an emotional and psychological battle, an assault on her self-perception, and a daily reminder of a tragedy that could have been prevented,' she said in a Brooklyn Federal Court lawsuit against the retailer and the manufacturer, Premier Candle Corp.
The candle, which sells for about $17, was made in Canada, 'with substandard materials, improper safety measures, and inadequate testing, creating an unreasonable risk of explosion' she said in court papers.
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3 The 'Sweater Weather' candle allegedly exploded minutes after Renita Francois said she lit it.
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And the candle was especially dangerous because chemical additives made the wax 'highly flammable,' contended Francois.
Adding insult to injury, the company knew its candles could be dangerous as far back as 2016, when it was forced to recall some of its votives for 'documented cases of candle explosions, glass shattering, and injuries caused by molten wax and fire hazards,' she said in court papers.
As executive director for the Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety under Mayor Bill de Blasio from July 2018 to April 2022, Francois was a frequent public speaker but now 'dreads stepping in front of a room.
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'Before the explosion, Renita was bold, fearless, and effortless in commanding an audience. Today, she walks into public meetings, panel discussions, and leadership summits knowing that her scars speak before she does,' she said in court papers.
She is seeking unspecified damages.
'This lawsuit is not just about compensation—it is about accountability. It is about ensuring that corporations that prioritize profit over consumer safety do not escape responsibility for the harm they cause,' she said in the litigation.
Bath & Body Works and Premier did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
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