HOT AIR: Serene fan heaters and the largest appliance recall in New Zealand history

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Title:	HOT AIR: Serene fan heaters and the largest appliance recall in New Zealand history
Author(s):	SOLLITT, Justin P.
ISBN:	978-0-473-70799-6
Category:	Business
New / Used:	Used
Book Type:	Medium Softcover
Published:	2024
Published By:	GPML
Edition:	1st edition
Pages:	280
Size (mm):	210 w x 295 h x 25 d

Condition

New

About

A must read for anyone in business and who says they have seen and heard it all…. because until you read this story, you haven’t.

The shocking and bizarre story of how in early 2024 one of New Zealand’s most prominent heating appliance brands based in Christchurch swiftly closed up shop, before becoming central to the largest and most costly appliance safety recall in New Zealand history.

Although appliance recalls are not uncommon, what makes this story truly extraordinary is the public realisation of the sheer quantity and scale of the safety and compliance deficiencies across the whole SERENE INDUSTRIES LTD heating products range, whilst the numerous safety audit warnings of the heaters that were reported to safety regulator WORKSAFE were largely ignored or dismissed.

What makes the WORKSAFE lack of regulatory response so bewildering is that the SERENE brand was for years plagued with an ever growing tally of fire incidents (two were near fatal) as well as electric shocks with products designed for wet bathrooms, whilst just as frequently both SERENE and WORKSAFE were being warned of the dangerous safety issues.

Since 2017 there have been no less than 52 separate safety and compliance warnings of the dangers of the SERENE products that were filed with WORKSAFE including their CEO and right up to Ministerial level, as well as to the New Zealand electrical industry. In 2021 WORKSAFE were even sent a batch of the SERENE products disassembled to be cross checked with their purported compliance certification and the electrical safety regulations.

For seven years WORKSAFE largely ignored or dismissed every one of the safety reports and concerns raised whilst they continued to allow tens of thousands of the dangerous SERENE fan heaters to be sold and installed across New Zealand.

In Australia the local SERENE licensee distributor that had only signed up to SERENE the year prior in 2016, had all the same safety and compliance shortcomings quickly surface. However, they simply refused to sell the dangerous heaters and within 18 months they terminated the Australian license and consigned their entire SERENE inventory to the scrap heap.

Then in early 2024, seven years after the first safety notice, WORKSAFE quietly conceded that SERENE products were in fact unsafe and swiftly gazetted two recall notices that ultimately covered three SERENE heater models and all their sales in New Zealand.....for the previous six years since 2018.

In an instant WORKSAFE had gone from dismissing all the fire safety incidents and compliance reports since 2017 as just frivolous scaremongering by a disgruntled ex-reseller, to publicly ruling it illegal to even switch a SERENE heater on, labelling the situation as "that's 19 fires too many" and the heaters are “so, so dangerous”.

Meanwhile the Owner of SERENE INDUSTRIES swiftly disappeared without a trace, whilst the CEO of WORKSAFE had resigned and the organisation barley even made a comment despite the enormous media coverage and public pressure demanding an explanation.

The cost that WORKSAFE has forced onto New Zealand home and business owners was quickly in the range of tens of millions of dollars.

To the layman this story clearly reveals how only a few years prior, and to the utter disbelief of a nation, the numerous unsafe and notified conditions were allowed to continue for years at Pike River Mine that abruptly ended with the explosion that killed 29 miners - and more recently the highly questionable fiasco that became of the Whakaari / White Island disaster investigation - both under the control of the very same Safety Regulator.

This is a story driven by the lethal combination of the reckless hubris, arrogance and deceit within SERENE INDUSTRIES colliding with the incomprehensible dysfunction, naivety and systematic failures within government safety regulator WORKSAFE ...whilst technical ineptitude was rife through both organisations.

Just as was the outcome of the Pike River Mine investigation, there has been zero accountability from either SERENE INDUSTRIES or WORKSAFE, whilst the court of public opinion has already deemed this a matter of criminal negligence.

Sadly and unnecessarily, there are striking similarities that are universal between this SERENE story and infamous other disasters in history which inevitably have ended up TV drama documentaries that include; Pike River Mine, Titan / Ocean Gate and the Grenfell Tower fire. Just as is the case with SERENE these disasters all had precisely the same pattern of hubris and profit getting in the way of public safety, and all were underscored by technical ineptitude, and all had the safety regulator being warned numerous times over the years prior but took little to no action when required.

"Serene will completely reshape Worksafe, especially in lieu of the Pike River Mine and White Island disasters". PN

"This is an absolute fiasco these Worksafe criminals have caused.” NZ wholesale reseller

"In our own business we get a further (and horrifying) look into the Worksafe team and their complete lack of skill and knowledge of electrical standards etc through this same process. Honestly, we we're shocked." NZ appliance distributor.

"How these Serene heaters even achieved certification at all is a very searching question, our safety investigations determined that there was nothing at all safe or legal about them. All this is a direct result of blatant recklessness by Serene, ineptitude by Worksafe and criminal negligence by both." GPML

"Letting this happen after years of safety warnings and multiple fires you would wonder what goes through the minds of Worksafe bosses. However WorkSafe NZ are an introverted organisation that has lost their way years ago. Hide bound, clumsy, poorly led, no outcome or results. They ignore heater fires but at the same time charge helicopter pilots for saving lives." DS

Remarks

Please email us to be put on the reprint list due late 2025. books@unicornbooks.co.nz

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