Stove tragedy mobilizes family to educate public on dangers of tipping

By Bob Satnan
Democrat Editor
bsatnan@sedaliademocrat.com
Somer Inlow doesn’t want anyone else to endure the heartache her family has dealt with for the past decade.
Ten years ago today, Inlow’s 3-year-old niece, Raven Holbert, of Sedalia, died from injuries incurred days earlier. According to Inlow and Sedalia Police reports cited by the Democrat, Raven opened the oven door and stepped onto it to grab a cookie off the kitchen counter, but her weight tipped the stove over onto her and trapped her between the door and the stove.
“It crushed her heart,” Inlow said. “It didn’t seem real, how she could be fine and smiley and laughing, and the next minute we were at Children’s Mercy (Hospital) trying to figure out if she was going to live or not.”
A full 10 years after losing her niece, Inlow is frustrated that children and senior adults continue to die under similar circumstances when a simple piece of metal, a stove bracket, could keep them alive. She and family members are working to raise awareness of the brackets and how they can help save lives.
“I looked up articles (online), and when I did I found other stories using (Raven’s) name about other kids who died the same way,” Inlow said. “Other families are having to deal with this, and it is not right.”
A stove bracket is an L-shaped piece of metal that is screwed down or bolted to the floor, then connected to the stove to keep it from tipping forward when weight is applied to the open oven door. Stove manufacturers provide the brackets and recommend that they be used as part of the installation, but there are no laws requiring their use.
“The companies provide the brackets, but the installers are not using them,” Inlow said. “Homeowners are not using them because they don’t want to put holes in their floors. ... It can prevent a child from being killed, it is worth it.”
Jerry Case, owner of the Sears Hometown store in Sedalia, said Sears policy dictates that the brackets be used when a stove is installed.
“We use the stove brackets unless there is an extenuating circumstance,” Case said. “And the customer has to sign off on it if it is not used. For a normal installation, the stove brackets are installed.”
Case said people with tile floors frequently ask that the bracket not be installed because they don’t want to deal with cracked tiles. But Case sees value in using the bracket no matter what kind of floor is present.
“I was just talking to one of our installers, and I told him, ‘This is a policy, it has to be done;’ the odds of needing it are slight, but you don’t want to be the one in a million.”
A U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission evaluation of range stability published in May found that “that there are 1,700 appliance-related, emergency department (ED)-treated injuries involving appliance instability and tipover annually. In addition, from 2000 to 2008, CPSC staff has reports of 13 fatalities associated with instability and tipover of appliances. The majority of the fatalities involved children younger than 10 years old.” But the evaluation also cited cases of senior citizens using the oven door for stability and the appliance tipping forward onto them.
Inlow said her family still dealing with Raven’s death, “and it makes our hurt worse seeing others go through same thing.” Her family is looking to get involved with consumer advocacy groups in an effort to have municipalities or the federal government mandate installation of stove brackets.
City Attorney Anne Gardner said Sedalia requires use of the bracket if the manufacturer’s installation guidelines call for it.
“We don’t require a permit, and no inspection of appliance installation is required,” she said.
In the case of a new home, inspectors will look for the bracket if the manufacturer’s installation guidelines call for it; however, Gardner said, “90 percent of the time, appliances are not in there at the time of the city inspection.”
Ron Snedden, a home inspector based in Warsaw, said while stove brackets are not mandated equipment, he still checks for them. And if one is not present, he will call it out in his report, especially if the client has children.
“It’s a good idea to have them put in,” he said. “I check the manufacturer’s recommendations, and I refer them to what the manufacturer says.”
But Rick Tolliver, an inspector with House Master, does not check for the bracket.
“We have a pretty large list of things we do look at,” he said. “We can’t inspect everything.”
Tolliver said most inspectors examine a house’s electrical system, plumbing, roof and other major areas, but it is fairly common for them not to inspect appliances.
Inlow, who lives in Quarter and works as an office manager at a soybean processing plant, is joined in her awareness efforts by her mother, Renae Ruzick; her sister, Skiler Holbert; and her father, Kevin Holbert. Raven’s parents cannot discuss the issue due to a settlement with the stove manufacturer and other involved parties.
“Our next step is to write letters to Congress and to our senators to let them know this is still going on,” Inlow said. “We are not going to be quiet about it.”
Case sees plenty of reasons to have the bracket installed.
“It only takes five minutes to do it, and the odds are almost nil that you will need it, but (incidents have) happened and we don’t want that on our conscience,” he said. “To lose a child like that, none of us would ever sleep.”
Inlow would like to see stove manufacturers put the bracket on the appliance before it is shipped from the factory.
“A car cannot go out without seat belts and have them installed later,” she said, “so why can’t (stove brackets) be put on before they go out the door?”
“We just don’t want to see any other families go through what we went through,” Inlow said.