Maison Law represents California residents who have suffered eye injuries due to wildfires caused by the negligence of PG&E. Our personal injury lawyers go to work immediately to hold utility giants like PG&E responsible for all injuries and medical bills that result from their carelessness. Please contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with a real California lawyer and find out how to hold PG&E fully accountable for your hardships.
Do I Need a Lawyer After Suffering an Eye Injury in a Wildfire
If you suffer only some minor irritation or a very minor injury in a wildfire, you may not require the help of a lawyer. But when your injuries are more serious, such as eye damage, you’ll have to make sure you secure the money you’ll need to pay for your medical recovery. Unfortunately, in a wildfire caused by PG&E, when hospital bills will be expensive PG&E will fight even harder to find ways to avoid blame.
When PG&E’s corporate lawyers attempt to downplay your eye injury or try to get you to accept far less than you’ll need to rebuild your life, your California Wildfire Injury Lawyer takes immediate action. Your lawyer fully investigates your case and backs it with powerful evidence that ensures PG&E can’t ignore your suffering. They’ll also have to accept accountability for the roadblocks to your recovery that lie ahead. Your Maison Law representative demands the maximum in compensation available.
Risks for Your Eyes in California Wildfires
When California residents are forced to flee wildfires, they do their best to avoid the raging flames and burn injuries. Unfortunately, it’s a bit harder to protect the eyes and air passages from smoke and toxic substances blown around in the air and across great distances.
The heat and the toxic fumes released by wildfires can target one of the most vulnerable organs on your body, your eyes.
The National Library of Medicine reports that eye burn injuries usually result from either thermal burns or chemical burns. Wildfires can sometimes cause both types of damage.
Thermal Eye Burns – The eye is exposed to direct flames, intense heat, or steam. The eyelid’s protective reflexes will often mean that the eyelid will suffer burn wounds as well. When wildfire victims are exposed to explosions, thermal damage can combine with penetrating damage that can cause even more serious damage.
Chemical Burns – These burns in fires usually result from the fumes produced by the burning of hazardous substances and toxic materials. Harmful chemicals are released into the air during wildfires in the form of gases and particle pollution. These types of eye burns are often more serious because the damage a harmful substance is doing can continue until the eye is flushed properly. Victims will often breathe in these harmful fumes at the same time their eyes are exposed.
The Cleveland Clinic finds that the victims of eye burns can experience:
- Vision loss
- Blurred vision
- Extreme pain
- Eyelid damage
- Swelling
- Bleeding
- Infection risk
Eye tissue can regenerate quickly and some victims only experience symptoms for a couple weeks. But eye injuries caused by exposure to wildfires and smoke can lead to more serious injuries. Victims can lose their sight and suffer permanent disfigurement.
No matter the level of injury, PG&E should be responsible for the cost of any medical care made necessary by the wildfires the utility company had a hand in starting. Your Maison Law lawyer understands your current needs and explores the care you may need in the years ahead. Your lawyer fights to make sure PG&E’s insurance providers cover your care in the past, the present, and in the future.
Who Is Responsible If I Suffer an Eye Injury During a Wildfire?
Any utility company that’s found responsible for causing wildfires that go on to hurt residents and damage property can be held financially liable. That’s true for the victims of past wildfires and the fires that will unfortunately spark in the future in California.
PG&E has been deemed responsible for causing around three dozen fires since 2017. Investigators point to their failure to upgrade their power grid and perform necessary maintenance on and around powerlines to lessen the chance of fires during storms.
Some injury victims have secured funds through the Fire Victim Trust funded by PG&E to help people suffering injuries in the 2015 Butte Fires, the 2017 North Bay Fires, and the 2018 Camp Fires. Other victims have secured financial help with their burn recoveries through individual lawsuits.
PG&E has been found liable, but their insurance representatives will still fight to keep the funds they pay to suffering victims as low as possible. They may use their own doctors to try to show how your eye injuries aren’t as serious as you claim. These are unfair tactics that can easily be blocked when you have a skilled burn injury lawyer on your side, monitoring your case. In fact, you can focus on healing, while having peace of mind that your lawyer is battling to earn the most in compensation possible for your injury.
Compensation for Wildfire Eye Injury Victims
Eye injury patients may require home care while they deal with temporary vision problems until they’ve fully healed. For victims with more serious injuries, long-term care may be needed. Victims with permanent vision loss could need renovations in their homes to give them as much freedom as possible. They’ll need therapists to help them learn how to manage life while blind.
Victims may also require help in finding a new career when they can’t return to their former jobs. In some less severe eye injury cases, PG&E can even be held responsible for the eye damage that exposure to wildfire smoke across California has been proven to cause. Victims don’t have to be close to a wildfire to seek support.
For victims of a PG&E-involved wildfire fire, these costs and others must be part of any settlement agreement:
- All current and future medical expenses.
- Costs of restorative surgery to hide burn damage and scars around the eyes.
- Estimates on future costs associated with a permanent physical disability involving vision loss.
- Support for the extreme physical pain eye injury patients often suffer.
- Support for the emotional trauma eye injury victims face. Victims may experience a loss of enjoyment of life due to their vision loss. They may deal with depression as they learn to manage a new lifestyle.
- Loss of income and benefits while burn victims must miss work.
- Travel costs as eye injury victims must find ways to reach doctor’s appointments and physical therapy sessions.
- Beyond injury compensation, wildfire victims must seek help in replacing their homes and property from PG&E.
Contact a California Wildfire Injury Lawyer
If you or a loved one suffered a serious eye due to a wildfire caused by PG&E speak to a California utility wildfire lawyer. We aren’t afraid to take on gigantic power companies and government agencies to secure our clients what they need to heal and adapt to an injury.
Contact Maison Law for a free consultation no matter where you live in California. Our case reviews are confidential and come with no obligation. If you decide we can help you earn more for your injuries and damages, you won’t need to have any upfront money to hire us. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the settlement money you are awarded.
