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Man suffers extensive burns in Allston pressure-cooker mishap

Boston EMS and firefighters responded to 102 Allston St. shortly after 10:30 p.m. when a man somehow opened his pressure cooker without releasing the pressure first and was hit with a geyser of steaming hot meat. He was rushed to the hospital.

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Comments

Especially when it's superheated water coming out of a pressure cooker. I wouldn't be surprised if he carries permanent burn scars on his face, although I hope it doesn't come to that.

I wonder if the pressure cooker was just barely latched, or perhaps of dangerously bad design.

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Smells like lawsuit

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I've been thinking of getting one but I can easily see myself forgetting to first release the steam before opening.

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If you get an instant pot or electric one you will be OK because it won't allow you to open it until it's safe.

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Newer ones have a safety mechanism that prevents you from opening it if still pressurized. Not that it's really new tech, I have 50 year old pieces of lab equipment that are pressurized to 500psi that have such a safety mechanism.

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Normally, you can't open the lid without the pressure being released. They're designed that way. The pressure itself will prevent you, as the lid has to be pressed down somewhat in order to turn it off the tabs that hold it closed. And if the lid isn't hooked on the closure tabs, compressing the gasket, it can't build up pressure.

So this pressure cooker was defective: either it wasn't properly closed, yet somehow built up pressure, or the lock failed.

The product liability lawsuit should be - dare I say it? - open and shut.

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Somehow opened??? I love a mystery.

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I'm completely ignorant about pressure cookers, but I thought the more modern ones had ways to keep people from opening them before they've been depressurized and I don't know exactly what happened, so I had to be vague on that point.

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If there is too much liquid, the pressure can build up and shoot the hot liquid out through the hole in the top, at least on older style pressure cookers.

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i grew up on the middle floor of a triple decker. when my grandmother used the pressure cooker she would call upstairs first and tell my mother not to let any of us run around. we used to think the whole house was going to explode if we made too much noise above her kitchen.

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My mom would put the pressure cooker outside when she used it. I was scared shitless of pressure cookers for years b/c of it. The first few times I used my Instapot you would have thought I was going into war...lol.

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It's good when people are "rushed" to a hospital after an accident.

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I'm not an expert on pressure cooking, or on anything else for that matter, but having owned a Fagor pressure cooker for twenty years which I use regularly and having grown up with them in the home, I can attest that it will not open while under pressure unless you use force or the pot and its safety features are defective.

I cannot speak to what our neighbor in Allston was doing but I hope he makes a speedy recovery.

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built into them. I bought a very good one twenty years ago (from Spanish maker Magafesa -- they're not cheap) and have never had an issue with it. I mainly use it to cook dried legumes without soaking (usually in about 45 minutes). Love that thing.

Possible explanations for this mishap: a defective or poorly-cared-for appliance (the rubber seal can't be abused without compromising safety), the use of one of the old-timey ones that were indeed time bombs waiting to go off, or a really protracted effort to defeat the fail-safes.

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