Setareh Law
December 2, 2025
The aftermath of a car accident can be traumatic enough, but when fire or extreme heat leaves you with burn injuries, the physical and emotional toll intensifies dramatically. Burns from vehicle collisions range from minor first-degree injuries to devastating third-degree burns requiring years of reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation. Unlike many accident injuries that heal relatively quickly, severe burns often leave permanent scars, cause chronic pain, and create psychological challenges that affect every aspect of your life for decades to come.
Understanding your legal rights after suffering burn injuries in a car accident is important for securing the comprehensive compensation you need for extensive medical treatment and long-term care. At Setareh Law, our attorneys have helped burn injury victims throughout California pursue maximum compensation for their devastating injuries. We’ve recovered over $250 million for clients and handle all cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you only pay attorney fees if we successfully recover compensation.
How Car Accidents Cause Burn Injuries
Vehicle collisions create several dangerous scenarios that may result in burn injuries to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. The most severe burns typically occur when fuel tanks rupture during high-speed impacts or when vehicles catch fire after collisions. Gasoline ignites easily, and once a fire starts in a vehicle, it can spread rapidly through the passenger compartment, trapping occupants before they can escape. Modern vehicles contain numerous flammable materials including upholstery, plastics, and insulation that release toxic fumes while burning.
Electrical burns represent another significant hazard in car accidents. Today’s vehicles contain complex electrical systems with high-voltage batteries, particularly in hybrid and electric cars. When an accident damages these systems, exposed wiring or compromised battery cells can cause electrical burns to anyone who touches affected components. First responders and Good Samaritans attempting to help accident victims sometimes suffer electrical burns when they inadvertently contact live electrical systems in damaged vehicles.
Chemical burns can occur when accident forces cause batteries to rupture, spilling battery acid onto vehicle occupants. Airbag deployments, while designed to save lives, sometimes cause friction burns or chemical burns from the propellant compounds used to inflate the bags rapidly. Less commonly, burns result from contact with extremely hot engine components, exhaust systems, or heated fluids like engine coolant or oil that spray onto occupants during severe collisions.
Understanding Burn Severity and Long-Term Impacts
Medical professionals classify burns into three categories based on depth and tissue damage. First-degree burns affect only the outer skin layer, causing redness, pain, and minor swelling similar to a sunburn. These typically heal within a week without scarring. Second-degree burns penetrate deeper, damaging both the outer skin layer and the underlying dermis. They cause intense pain, blistering, swelling, and may leave permanent scars, especially when they cover large body areas or become infected during healing.
Third-degree burns represent the most severe category, destroying all skin layers and potentially damaging muscle, bone, and other underlying structures. Surprisingly, third-degree burns often cause less initial pain than second-degree burns because nerve endings are destroyed. However, the long-term consequences are devastating. Third-degree burns always require extensive medical intervention including skin grafts, reconstructive surgery, and prolonged rehabilitation. Victims face permanent scarring, loss of normal skin function including temperature regulation and sensation, chronic pain from nerve damage, and increased infection risk throughout their lives.
Beyond physical impacts, burn injuries create profound psychological challenges. Many burn survivors develop depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Visible scarring, particularly on the face, hands, or other exposed areas, affects self-esteem and social relationships. The prolonged recovery process strains family relationships and financial resources. Children who suffer burns may require multiple surgeries as they grow to accommodate changing body proportions, extending their trauma across years or decades.
Compensation Available for Burn Injury Cases
Burn injury victims may be able to recover several types of compensation through personal injury claims. Economic damages include all quantifiable financial losses like immediate emergency treatment, hospitalization costs, surgical expenses including skin grafts and reconstructive procedures, ongoing medical care and monitoring, prescription medications and medical supplies, physical therapy and rehabilitation, lost income during recovery periods, and reduced earning capacity if burns cause permanent limitations affecting your ability to work.
Non-economic damages compensate for subjective losses that don’t have clear price tags. These include physical pain and suffering from the burn injuries and treatment procedures, emotional distress including depression, anxiety, and PTSD, disfigurement and permanent scarring, loss of enjoyment of life when burns prevent you from participating in activities you once enjoyed, and reduced quality of life from chronic pain or physical limitations.
In cases involving particularly reckless behavior like drunk driving or intentional misconduct, California law allows for punitive damages designed to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar conduct. For example, if a driver was racing while intoxicated and caused a collision resulting in fire and burn injuries, a jury might award punitive damages beyond compensatory damages.
Proving Liability in Burn Injury Cases
Successfully recovering compensation requires establishing that another party’s negligence caused the accident that led to your burns. In straightforward collision cases, this means proving the other driver violated traffic laws or failed to exercise reasonable care. However, burn injury cases sometimes involve additional liable parties beyond the driver who caused the collision. Vehicle manufacturers may bear liability if defective fuel systems, faulty electrical components, or inadequate fire suppression systems contributed to fire or burns. For example, if a relatively minor collision should not have resulted in fire, but a defectively designed fuel tank ruptured and ignited, the manufacturer may be liable. These product liability claims require professional analysis and testimony about vehicle design and safety standards.
Government entities may be liable if dangerous road conditions contributed to the accident. Poor road design, inadequate signage, or failure to maintain traffic control devices can all contribute to collisions. However, claims against government agencies involve strict procedural requirements and shortened deadlines, making immediate legal consultation critical after burn injuries.
Work With Setareh Law After Suffering Burn Injuries
The attorneys at Setareh Law bring over 60 years of combined experience representing catastrophic injury victims, including those who suffered severe burns in car accidents. We understand the devastating physical, emotional, and financial impacts of burn injuries, and we work with medical professionals, life care planners, and economists to document the full extent of your damages including future needs. Our approach focuses on securing maximum compensation that adequately addresses both your immediate expenses and your long-term requirements for medical care, psychological support, and income replacement.
We maintain over 400 five-star reviews on Google because we provide personalized attention to every client, treating your case with the urgency and compassion it deserves. Our firm operates eight office locations throughout California and offers home visits or hospital visits when your injuries make travel impossible. Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss your burn injury case and begin pursuing the comprehensive compensation you need for your recovery and future.
