A Consumer Nightmare: Mistral Fan Fires

In 1988, two young brothers, Daniel and Matthew Stott, died in a house fire in Craigieburn, Victoria. The fire started in Matthew's bedroom and was attributed to a Mistral fan. Warren Stott, their father, discovered the fire after hearing interference on his headphones, and Mrs. Stott, their pregnant mother, had just gone outside. Despite Warren's frantic attempts to put out the blaze, the heat was too intense. The coroner's report indicated the fire originated from a Mistral fan. A neighbor, Mrs. Emily Ledwick, recounted Mrs. Stott's distress, repeatedly questioning why she had used the fan.

Months before the Stott tragedy, in November 1987, Maria Carland of Gladstone Park narrowly avoided a house fire when she unplugged a burning Mistral fan in her twin daughters' bedroom. She wrote an emotional letter to Mistral, pleading with them to address the problem before someone was hurt or killed. The owning company at the time, PDL Industries, passed responsibility to previous owners, Kentron, who in turn referred her to another company. PDL sent her a replacement fan, but Carland destroyed it after her children were scared by it. Her worst fears were realized three months later with the Stott children's deaths.

The Mistral Gyro Aire Cooling Fans (GA 13-40 and GA 16-70) had numerous problems. Fans manufactured before 1979 used flammable plastic, and some models had a faulty switch design that allowed them to catch fire even when turned off. Coroner Mr. Greene Johnstone noted that between 1976 and 1990, Mistral fans caused at least 100 fires, including 43 in Victoria. An earlier range of fans was recalled in 1977-78, but problems persisted with the Style 11 model. In 1984, Mistral's product development manager, Kevin Cummins, wrote a memo advising a product recall was the only solution. This memo was suppressed by legal officer Dennis Bayard, and no public warning or recall was initiated by Mistral. The new owners, PDL, were not informed of the problem until after purchasing the brand and initiated a recall in 1989.

Coroner Johnstone concluded that senior executives of Kentron Industries Ltd. and Mistral contributed to the deaths of Daniel and Matthew Stott by failing to act on a recall. He specifically named Dennis Bayard (legal officer), Michael Haines (general manager), and Robert Carman (managing director) as executives who possessed knowledge of the fan fires in 1985. Johnstone's investigation was hampered by the inability to retrieve executive meeting minutes. He highlighted Mistral's lack of transparency with various organizations and individuals, coupled with inadequate handling of claims by insurers and a poor industry approvals system. The matter was referred to the director of public prosecutions to consider charges. While Haines and Bayard denied culpability, their lawyer stated the inquiry deeply affected them, and they claimed no increasing trend of fan-related fires. Over 200,000 of the old Mistral fans are still believed to be in circulation.