First U.S. Jury to Hold PVC Wiring Liable for Fire Deaths: The Younkers Merle Hay Case

On November 5, 1978, a fire broke out inside the Younkers department store at Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines on a Sunday morning before the store opened to the public. Ten employees who had come in to work were trapped and killed, making it the deadliest fire in Des Moines history. The loss of life would almost certainly have been far greater had customers been present.

The fire's origin was traced to an electrical malfunction in a second-floor plenum space, where plastic-coated wiring overheated and began decomposing. Over several hours, the degrading polyvinyl chloride insulation produced corrosive, flammable, and toxic gases. When the building's air circulation fans activated, those gases ignited and spread in a thick, black curtain through the store.

Families of all ten victims retained George LaMarca of what became LaMarca Law Group, P.C. The firm sued more than twenty companies that manufactured or otherwise stood behind PVC wire insulation, including Underwriters Laboratories and B.F. Goodrich. The theory was straightforward but at the time unproven in court: PVC insulation, when exposed to even moderate electrical heat in an enclosed airspace, releases gases lethal enough to kill before fire itself reaches a victim.

The trial ran nearly two months and required the court to weigh competing electrical engineering and toxicology testimony. The jury deliberated more than three days. In March 1984, it returned a verdict finding six companies negligent, holding for the first time anywhere in the country that PVC wire insulation was the cause of a fatal fire. The June 1984 UPI report noted that attorneys, plastics experts, and insurance officials nationwide regarded the verdict as a turning point that changed the economic, political, and scientific stakes for the plastic insulation industry.

No damages figure from the Polk County verdict has been publicly reported; the families settled individually following the liability determination. The case is also historically notable as the first civil trial in Iowa to permit in-court television coverage.