OCOOPA Recalls 1.5 Million Rechargeable Hand Warmers After 350 Burn Injuries and One Death

What Was Recalled?

On July 30, 2026, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of about 1.5 million OCOOPA rechargeable hand warmers, recall number 26-659. The notice identifies the importer as Shenzhen Street Cat Technology Co., Ltd., doing business as OCOOPA Direct, of China, and states that the products were manufactured in China.

According to the CPSC notice, the recall covers OCOOPA-branded rechargeable lithium-ion battery hand warmers in models UT3053, UT3056, ZLS-118, ZLS-118S, ZLS-118D, H01 and H01(PD). They are dual-sided units sold in packs of two that join magnetically, with a USB-C charging port, adjustable heat, LED indicator lights on a hard plastic shell, and a silicone lanyard. The word OCOOPA is printed on the top of each unit and on the packaging, and the notice says the model number and a three-digit batch number are printed on the underside.

The notice states the hand warmers were sold online at Amazon.com, Ocoopa.com, Ocoopa.net and Walmart.com from September 2018 through May 2026, for between $15 and $60. Those are national retail channels, so units reached buyers in Texas over that eight-year window.

What Risk Does the Notice Describe?

The stated hazard is that the lithium-ion battery in the recalled hand warmers can overheat and ignite, which the CPSC describes as posing a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards.

The numbers in the notice are unusually high for a consumer recall. OCOOPA Direct reported receiving 1,480 reports of hand warmers overheating, resulting in 15 fires and 350 burn injuries. The notice also reports one death: an 83-year-old consumer in San Diego, California, in February 2026. That reported death was in California, not Texas.

The remedy in the notice is a refund. CPSC and the company say consumers should stop using the recalled hand warmers immediately and contact OCOOPA Direct for a full refund in the form of an OCOOPA gift card or the original form of payment, and that the company will ask consumers to write RECALLED on the unit in permanent marker and submit a photo showing that marking along with the model and three-digit batch number. The notice also gives specific disposal instructions: a defective lithium-ion battery should not go in household trash, curbside recycling, or the used-battery boxes found in retail and home improvement stores, and a municipal household hazardous waste collection center should be contacted first to confirm it accepts defective lithium-ion batteries. CPSC asks consumers to report related incidents at SaferProducts.gov.

National outlets including Fox Business and NewsNation reported the recall the same day.

Who Can Be Affected?

• Anyone in Texas who bought an OCOOPA rechargeable hand warmer online between September 2018 and May 2026, in one of the listed models
• People who received one as a gift — a low-cost, giftable item often has no receipt and no record of who bought it
• Anyone treated for a burn after a pocket warmer, charger, or battery pack overheated
• Households and renters whose home, apartment, or belongings were damaged in a fire of undetermined cause where a charging device was present
• Outdoor workers, hunters, and people who use warmers for cold-weather medical conditions such as Raynaud syndrome, who tend to keep them against skin for long stretches

What Kind of Claim Might Apply?

Attorneys who handle Texas defective product and burn cases generally describe several paths that can apply when a consumer product overheats and causes injury or a fire:

• A products liability claim — Chapter 82 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code governs products liability actions in Texas, including claims based on a manufacturing defect, a design defect, or a failure to warn, and sets out the roles of manufacturers and sellers in the chain of distribution.
• The foreign-manufacturer problem — the importer here is a Chinese company, and lawyers who handle imported-product cases say that reaching a foreign manufacturer raises questions of jurisdiction, service, and collectability that shape who is worth suing. Chapter 82 also addresses when a seller in the chain can be treated differently from a manufacturer. An attorney can explain how those rules apply to a particular purchase and a particular retailer.
• A claim for someone who was seriously burned — burn injuries can mean emergency care, skin grafts, infection risk, scarring, and long rehabilitation, and Texas law lets an injured person seek compensation for medical bills, lost income, disfigurement, and other harms.
• A fire and property-damage claim — when a defective device starts a house or apartment fire, there can be both an injury claim and a property claim, and an insurer that pays a fire loss may pursue its own subrogation claim against the product maker. Attorneys say a homeowner or renter policy claim and a product claim can run at the same time.
• A wrongful death and survival claim — if a defective product causes a death, Chapter 71 generally allows a surviving spouse, children, and parents to seek compensation, with a survival claim belonging to the estate.
• Preserving the proof — this is where lithium-ion cases are won or lost. Attorneys handling fire and battery cases routinely ask people to keep the device itself even when it is burned or melted, along with the packaging, the model and three-digit batch number, the charging cable, the order confirmation or Amazon and Walmart purchase history, photographs of the scene and of the injury, and the medical and fire-department records. A recall remedy asks consumers to mark the unit and send it back for a refund; a person who was hurt may want a lawyer to look at the paperwork before the physical evidence leaves their hands, because the burned unit is the case.

None of the above says that any particular person has a claim. It describes the questions Texas attorneys say people ask after a recall like this one, and the evidence they typically want preserved. A lawyer can review a specific situation and explain what, if anything, applies.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

For most Texas personal injury and wrongful death cases, the statute of limitations is generally two years, and Chapter 16 also contains a separate period of repose for products liability claims that runs from the date of sale — a lawyer can explain how those deadlines apply to a specific purchase and a specific injury date. That matters here because the recalled units were sold as far back as September 2018.

The practical clock is shorter than the legal one. Fire scenes get cleaned up, burned devices get thrown out, insurers close files, and a recall refund process asks consumers to mark and surrender the very unit that would be examined by an expert. Many people choose to have a lawyer look at the situation early, while the device, the purchase record, and the fire report still exist.

Sources

1. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission — OCOOPA Direct recalls 1.5 million rechargeable hand warmers due to risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards; one death reported (recall 26-659, July 30, 2026)
2. Fox Business — About 1.5 million rechargeable hand warmers recalled after 1 death, hundreds of burn injuries reported
3. NewsNation — 1.5M rechargeable hand warmers recalled over fire risk after hundreds injured, 1 death
4. CPSC SaferProducts.gov — Report an unsafe product or a product-related injury
5. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 82 (Products Liability)
6. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 71 (Wrongful Death; Survival)
7. Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, Chapter 16 (Limitations)