A San Diego man who was severely burned last year while refueling a small tabletop fire pit with rubbing alcohol has sued Amazon and the companies that made the device, alleging the manufacturers and the online retail giant sold the ethanol-burning fire pit despite knowing it was a “defective and hazardous product known to have caused numerous burn injuries.”

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in San Diego Superior Court, accuses Amazon and the device’s Florida-based manufacturers — Colsen Fire Pits and Gusar, LLC — of violating several consumer-protection laws, including regulations around product liability. It alleges the product was highly susceptible to “flame jetting,” wherein flames explode out of the device and travel up a stream of the rubbing alcohol meant to fuel it.

The Colsen-brand fire pits were the subject of a consumer alert by the federal government and recall in 2024, and the suit alleges that such explosions were so common and dangerous that Australia and Canada essentially banned the devices. In June, two children were badly burned in a similar explosion in Oceanside. Officials described that device as the same type of tabletop fire pit fueled by rubbing alcohol, though it’s unclear if it was made by the same company.

Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed by Anthony Trevino, a 31-year-old San Diego resident and former U.S. Navy search-and-rescue swimmer. Trevino and his attorneys alleged that he suffered “gruesome third-degree burn injuries to his face, ears, neck, torso, arms, hands, and fingers” when the fire pit exploded during refilling. Trevino was “hospitalized for many weeks,” and his attorney said he’ll deal with those injuries and scarring for the remainder of his life.

“I never imagined a product sold to me as ‘safe and easy’ would do this to me in my own home,” Trevino said in a statement. “My whole life, my job was to pull people out of danger. I can’t undo what happened to me, but I can hold Amazon accountable to ensure they stop selling products that are so dangerous they can alter the course of someone’s life.”

Amazon did not respond to questions about the lawsuit Wednesday, but said it removed Colsen products from its website and notified customers after the 2024 recall. The company said it no longer sells those products on its website.

The other defendants could not be reached for comment. Colsen Fire Pits filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and appears to no longer be in business.

According to the lawsuit, Trevino purchased the fire pit, which is designed to burn a pooled fuel source, on Amazon’s website in 2021. Following the suggestion of Amazon’s algorithm, he also purchased isopropyl alcohol, commonly known as rubbing alcohol, to fuel the device, according to the lawsuit.

“He was hoping to use the fire pit to provide some nice ambience on his outdoor patio in his apartment in San Diego,” the lawsuit alleged. “What Anthony didn’t know, but Defendants did know, was this product, and tabletop ethanol burners in general, were and are defective and extremely dangerous, as they were already outlawed in Australia and Canada due to the possibility of causing severe burn injuries.”

In October 2024, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that Colsen had recalled its fire pits “due to risk of serious burn injury from flame jetting and fire spreading hazards.” In December 2024, the agency issued a consumer alert for all such devices, stating that such fire pits violated voluntary safety standards and had resulted in “two deaths and dozens of serious burn injuries.”

After the recall, Amazon sent an email to Trevino and others who had purchased Colsen-branded fire pits informing the buyers that “the product … may not meet current mandatory or voluntary safety standards,” according to the lawsuit. But the suit alleged that the email “did not offer to refund the purchase price or advise buyers such as Plaintiff that the product was defective and using it could result in catastrophic burn injuries.”

A little less than a year later, in September 2025, Trevino attempted to refill his fire pit believing that the flame had burned out, but in reality there was still a nearly invisible flame burning, according to the lawsuit. When he poured the alcohol onto that flame, it exploded so powerfully that it not only severely burned him, but it melted a decorative light hanging nearby and charred the balcony fencing.

Jeremy Robinson, an attorney representing Trevino from the firm SHK Law, said a 2020 appellate decision in another San Diego case helped set the precedent for suing Amazon over products it sells through third parties. In that case, which involved a San Diego woman badly burned and injured by a replacement laptop battery she purchased, Amazon argued that it was merely an online marketplace and logistics operator and could not be held liable for defects in third-party products. A three-judge panel from a California appeals court disagreed and ruled in favor of the plaintiff against Amazon.

Several other individuals around the U.S. have filed similar lawsuits against Colsen Fire Pits and Amazon, according to court records. Robinson said Trevino has suffered “both physically and psychologically” and hopes his and other lawsuits will raise awareness about the dangers of such products and the risk of flame jetting.

“This is something that the average consumer just wouldn’t have any way to know about or to expect, that these kind of products can do something like that,” Robinson said.

Trevino’s lawsuit seeks monetary damages, including damages for the loss of earnings and medical expenses.

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