Unlike firms that rarely handle catastrophic injury cases, we’ve spent decades representing Louisiana workers and families devastated by life-long injuries and fatalities, including:

Toxic chemical leaks and oil and gas combustions resulting in burns, significant injuries, long-term illnesses, and disease.

Platform explosions, vessel fires, and hot oil burns.

Natural gas explosions along Louisiana’s pipeline corridors.

Acid burns and petrochemical and caustic chemical exposures.

Fracking accidents, well blowouts, and transport crashes in Louisiana’s oil patch and Gulf oil operations.

Burns and electrical injuries at Louisiana’s fossil-fuel, natural gas, petroleum, and biomass power plants.

Manufacturing burns throughout Louisiana’s industry corridors, onshore and offshore job sites.

Injuries and death to families caused by house fires, utility explosions, code violations, faulty wiring and repairs, and defective products.

Serious burn injuries are all too common among the many workers in Louisiana’s maritime, oilfield and refinery industries. Victims often have catastrophic and disfiguring injuries with deep emotional, physical, and mental scars. The initial injury itself and the subsequent treatments are exceptionally painful and often necessarily repeated over the long term.

Residential and commercial building fires claim numerous lives and cause catastrophic injuries to Louisiana residents every year. In 2024, there were over 50 home fire fatalities in Louisiana, many of which in Central Louisiana and surrounding rural parishes.

Residential Fire Burns

Home fires spread rapidly, trapping victims and causing severe burns within minutes:

Faulty wiring, overloaded circuits, and outdated electric systems throughout older homes in Louisiana’s rural parishes.

Absent or non-working smoke detectors, blocked exits, code violations in rental properties.

Dryers, water heaters, HVAC systems, and home components catching fire or exploding due to manufacturing defects.

Commercial Building Fire Burns

Louisiana business fires can trap multiple victims, causing mass injury and casualty events:

Grease buildups, faulty hood systems, inadequate fire suppression.

Non-functioning sprinkler systems, blocked emergency exits, inadequate evacuation plans, and failures to comply with Louisiana fire codes.

Overloaded electrical systems, improper storage of flammable materials.

Fire spreading between units due to inadequate firebreaks, missing fire doors, and faulty repairs and maintenance.

Overcrowding, locked exits, pyrotechnics, and inadequate emergency lighting.

Common Injuries and Fatal Causes in Residential and Commercial Fires

When fires claim lives, Louisiana families may pursue both wrongful death and survival claims for burn injuries:

Many fire deaths result from the victim inhaling toxic smoke.

Explosive, high heat fires cause instant and sometimes fatal burns.

Barred windows, locked exits, collapsed stairways and corridors preventing escape from the danger.

Most vulnerable to fatal burns and smoke inhalation due to mobility limitations and physical impairments.

Victims overcome by smoke and rapidly spreading flames while sleeping, especially without working smoke alarms.

Your skin is the largest organ of your body. Damage from burns can cause immediate pain and suffering, long-lasting physical complications, and take months or years of costly surgeries and rehabilitation, resulting in massive medical bills and a lack of income from work.

Neblett, Beard & Arsenault’s experienced Louisiana burn injury attorneys can help you and your family navigate these challenging and complex injuries. How long it will take you to recover depends on how severely your skin tissue was damaged:

• Affects outer skin layer (epidermis)
• Healing time: 10-20 days
• Red, painful, no blistering

• Damages epidermis and dermis
• Healing time: Several weeks to months
• Painful blisters, risk of infection

• Destroys all skin layers
• May damage muscle, bone, nerves
• Requires skin grafts
• Permanent scarring likely

• Extends through skin to muscle/bone
• Often requires amputation
• Life-threatening injuries
• Permanent disability common

Victims overcome by smoke and rapidly spreading flames while sleeping, especially without working smoke alarms.

• Shock: Life-threatening blood pressure drop.
• Infection/Sepsis: One of the leading causes of burn-related deaths.
• Respiratory Failure/Lung Injury: From smoke/chemical inhalation.
• Hypothermia: Body can no longer regulate temperature due to skin damage.
• Hypovolemia: Dangerous fluid loss.

• Surgeries: Painful debridement and skin grafts.
• Contractures: Skin tightening limiting movement.
• Disfigurement: Permanent scarring.
• PTSD: Trauma from fire or explosion requiring mental health treatment.
• Chronic Pain: Nerve damage, phantom pain, pain with movement and ambulation.
• Depression: From appearance changes, limitations, and the loss of activities of daily life.

Besides the physical and mental pain and suffering, burn injury victims may have massive medical bills and a lack of income due to disabling injuries. This can cause added strain and stress at an already devastating time in the lives of the burn injury victim and his or her family:

Can be thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars for severe burns.

Thousands of dollars per day.

• Destroys all skin layers
• May damage muscle, bone, nerves
• Requires skin grafts
• Permanent scarring likely

• Extends through skin to muscle/bone
• Often requires amputation
• Life-threatening injuries
• Permanent disability common

Victims overcome by smoke and rapidly spreading flames while sleeping, especially without working smoke alarms.

Our team has spent decades securing lifetime care and maximum compensation for catastrophically injured victims across Louisiana.

We understand that no amount of money can bring back your loved one. But holding at-fault parties accountable for your loved one’s death can provide financial security for your family’s future and can prevent future tragedies from taking place.

Our attorneys at Neblett, Beard & Arsenault have decades of experience handling, winning, and maximizing your family’s recovery from complex wrongful death cases in Central Louisiana and surrounding communities throughout the entire state.

Contact Our Louisiana Wrongful Death Lawyers Today:

• 24/7 Line: (318) 561-2500
• Online: Free Evaluation

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)- Louisiana Wrongful Death Claims

How is wrongful death different from criminal charges?

Wrongful death in Louisiana is a civil claim for monetary damages due to the death of your loved one. Criminal charges (like vehicular homicide charges after a motor vehicle fatality) are separate and apart from a civil wrongful death claim and survival action. You can, and should, call for an evaluation of pursuing civil damages even if criminal charges are not filed.

What if my loved one was partially at fault?

Louisiana’s comparative fault law allows recovery even with partial fault. For example, if your loved one was 30% at fault, the family of the deceased can still recover 70% of damages. Our Louisiana wrongful death attorneys at Neblett, Beard & Arsenault fight to minimize fault attribution to your loved one and maximize recovery for the family.

Who can bring a wrongful death claim, and how are wrongful death awards divided?

Louisiana law specifies distribution based on a priority ranking of survivors. Surviving spouses and children take priority. If your loved one left behind no spouses or children, the parents of the deceased can bring the wrongful death claim and survival action. If no surviving parents, other surviving family members may be the priority to bring the claims on behalf of the lost loved one. Our Louisiana wrongful death attorneys can assist your family in evaluating who may be able to bring a claim for your loved one’s death.

Do we have a claim if death occurred months after the accident?

Yes, a wrongful death claim or lawsuit can be brought even if the death did not immediately occur at the time of the original injury, as long as the death resulted from the original incident. Each case requires specific analysis and guidance. Our top-rated Louisiana wrongful death attorneys have the expertise to guide you through this evaluation. We take immediate action to investigate, preserve critical evidence such as autopsy results and police reports, and we work with accident and medical experts to prove causation.

What if the person who caused the death has no insurance?

Our Louisiana wrongful death attorneys investigate all potential sources of recovery to provide your family with the maximum recovery from this tragic event. We thoroughly investigate all sources of liability, including the employer, the premises owner, uninsured motorist coverage, personal assets, and parent company liability in commercial matters. Our qualified attorneys leave no stone unturned. Please call us today so that we can work on behalf of your family in your time of greatest need.