Content about Man Made Disaster

An egg incubator sold at certain farm and ranch retailers and manufactured by Houghton, Iowa-based Hawkeye Steel Products' Brower divison is being recalled.

The base can ignite during use, posing a fire hazard to the consumer, according to a release from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. No injuries have been reported, but Brower received three reports of fires, resulting in property damage.

Dating back almost to the Great Fire of Chicago, Stauber’s Ace Hardware turned 140 years old in 2012.

Founded in 1872 by Louis Stauber, a Swiss immigrant, in Chicago one year after the Chicago fire ravaged the city. The store was relocated more than 100 years ago to the Northcenter area of Chicago, where it currently does business today. 

A fire that that heavily damaged Burton Bros. Hardware in Seaford, Del., sent one of the store owners to the hospital for smoke inhalation, according to an article in the News Journal.

Harrison’s Hardware, a fixture in downtown Milford, Conn., until a fire forced it to close six years ago, will be resurrected -- in parts -- by a gourmet pizza chain.

A fire that broke out on July 14 at Padula Lumber in Coyote, Calif., brought 30 firefighters, nine fire engines and two trucks to contain the blaze, according to an article in the San Jose Mercury News. One building was gutted and another seriously damaged, the newspaper reported. But owner Doug Morse told Home Channel News that the extent of the damage was pretty minimal. 

A man who claimed his friend’s hardware store was being driven out of business had been arrested for torching a Home Depot in Shoreline, Wash., a town 9 miles north of Seattle.

As reported in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Randol Stebner, 53, started two small fires near the Aurora Avenue North store on May 14. According to police documents, Stebner admitted to lighting the fires and said he’d do it again.

In a blaze captured on YouTube, a Stamford, Vt., facility owned by Eagle Lumber went up in flames in one of the biggest fires in the city's history. 

The impact of federal regulations on light bulb sales has created an opportunity for a Snohomish, Wash., hardware store to push supplies while they last. 

McDaniel's Do it Center’s recent email marketing blast pointed to January 2012 changes in light bulb regulations and encouraged consumers to "stock up now and shine on!"

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with LG Electronics Tianjin Appliance Co., is re-issuing a recall on dehumidifiers that have already caused more than $1 million in property damage. The recall involves 30-pint portable dehumidifiers sold under the Goldstar and Comfort-Aire brands. 

Orangeburg, S.C.-based Cox Industries and iLevel by Weyerhaeuser have joined efforts to expand distribution of Cox fire- and preservative-treated lumber, plywood and columns in select Atlantic states under the Cox D-Blaze and Ecolife brands.

Cox D-Blaze fire-retardant treated lumber and plywood can help control the spread of flames and smoke, and Ecolife by Cox can help protect wood against fungal decay, termite damage and weathering, the company said.

Ward’s Do-it Center, a hardware store in Hamburg Township, Mich., reopened on May 14 after a fire destroyed nearly half the store the week before, according to an article in the Livingston Daily. 

Firefighters from several municipalities near the southeast Michigan town battled the May 9 evening blaze, which damaged or destroyed two other stores in the strip mall they share. No one was hurt.

Arrow Lumber, a seven-unit chain of hardware stores and lumberyards headquartered in Buckley, Wash., is running into resistance from both city and county officials over a proposed expansion to his Port Townsend lumberyard, according to an article in the Port Townsend Leader.