Galanz Retro Refrigerator Recall Lawsuit | Fire Injury Lawyers

On July 30, 2026, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of about 121,680 Galanz retro refrigerators because internal electrical components can short circuit and ignite. The CPSC recall notice reports 34 fires involving these refrigerators. One of them resulted in a death, according to the local fire department report.

The recalled refrigerators were sold at Home Depot stores nationwide and on Amazon.com. CPSC names two importers on the notice: Home Depot, of Georgia, and Galanz Americas Limited Company, of New Jersey. The refrigerators were manufactured by Zhongshan Galanz, of China.

If a fire in your home involved one of these refrigerators, or if someone in your family was burned or killed in a fire that started at an appliance, the national fire and burn injury lawyers at Pritzker Hageman can review what happened at no cost. Contact us today.

Which Galanz refrigerators are recalled

The recall covers Galanz retro-style refrigerators measuring about 58 inches high, 24 inches deep and 21 inches wide, with a 7.6 cubic foot capacity, three adjustable glass shelves, one drawer, and a separate top freezer door with Galanz printed on the front. They were sold in black, blue, red and white, with either a left-hand or right-hand opening door.

The recalled model numbers are:

• BCD-215V-62H
• GLR76TRDER
• GLR76TBKER
• GLR76TBEER
• GLR76TWEER

The model number alone does not tell you whether your refrigerator is recalled. Only units with date codes from December 2018 through December 2020 are included. The brand name, the model number and the date code, written in year-then-month format, are printed on a white label in the upper left corner on the back of the unit.

They were sold from January 2019 through September 2022 for between 330 and 520 dollars. The CPSC recall number is 26-649.

What the recall says happened

CPSC describes the hazard as internal electrical components that can short circuit and ignite, posing a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards. The notice reports that CPSC is aware of 34 reports of fire involving the refrigerators, one of which resulted in a fatality according to the local fire department report.

That is the whole of what has been made public about the death. CPSC has not released the person’s name, the date, the location, or any finding about what the refrigerator did in that particular fire. The recall notice does not say the short circuit described in the hazard statement is what happened in the fatal incident, and nobody should assume it did.

It is also worth being precise about what 34 reports of fire means. These are incidents reported to the manufacturer or the regulator. There is no public breakdown of how many caused injuries, how much property damage resulted, or how many happened while people were asleep in the house. Appliance fires that begin overnight in a kitchen are the ones that produce catastrophic injuries, and a report count says nothing about that.

Why an importer being named matters

In many consumer product recalls involving imported goods, the responsible firm is an overseas seller with little or no presence in the United States, which can make recovery difficult for an injured family no matter how clear the defect is. This recall is different. CPSC names two importers, both of them United States entities: Home Depot, of Georgia, and Galanz Americas Limited Company, of New Jersey.

Under the product liability law of most states, a company in the chain of distribution can be responsible for a defective product it placed on the market, and the analysis does not stop at the factory that built it. Identifying who imported, distributed and sold a product is ordinary early work in a fire case, and it is often what determines whether a family with a real claim can actually recover anything.

Naming an importer is not an accusation, and nothing in the recall notice says any company acted wrongfully. It is a starting point for the investigation a lawyer would run, not a conclusion.

The recall remedy is a repair, and that affects the evidence

CPSC tells owners to unplug and stop using the recalled refrigerators immediately until they are repaired, and to contact Galanz to schedule a free in-home repair by a qualified technician. Owners can reach Galanz Americas at 888-462-0579, by email at [email protected], or through the recall page linked above.

If nobody was hurt, follow those instructions. If someone was injured or killed in a fire that involved one of these refrigerators, there is a step that comes first. The unit itself, and above all the components that failed, are the physical evidence in any claim. A repair replaces those components, and the technician performing it works for the company conducting the recall. Once the parts are gone, they cannot be examined by anyone acting for the injured family.

The same problem shows up in a different form across this class of recall. The CPSC published four other fire and burn recalls on the same day as this one, and one of them, covering about 178,000 OCTROT electric throws and blankets, requires consumers to cut the electrical cord in half and send a photograph of the destroyed product before they can receive a refund. That recall reports 555 reports of the blankets melting, sparking or smoking, 27 fires, and 15 burn or electrical shock injuries. A consumer who follows the instructions destroys the cord, which is the part that failed.

None of this suggests any company is hiding anything. Recalls are written to get dangerous products out of homes quickly, and that is a good purpose. It simply means that if you were hurt, preserving what is left of the product, keeping the fire department report, and photographing the scene before anything is repaired or thrown away are the steps that protect your ability to prove what happened.

What to do if you were burned in an appliance fire

• Get medical care and keep every record, including the emergency response and any transfer to a burn center.
• Do not repair, discard or return the appliance until you have spoken with a lawyer.
• Photograph the appliance, the surrounding area and the damage, from several distances.
• Ask the fire department for the incident report and the investigator’s name.
• Find the model number and date code label on the back of the unit and photograph it.
• Keep the receipt, delivery paperwork or order history showing where and when it was bought.
• Write down what you saw, heard and smelled before the fire, while it is fresh.

Pritzker Hageman represents people across the country who have been catastrophically burned or who have lost a family member in a fire caused by a defective product. There is no cost to have us look at what happened. Call 1-888-377-8900 or use the contact form below.