Claims Film Makers’ Negligence Caused Her Injuries : Stunt Woman Sues for $10 Million

Saying that she is through with that kind of work for good, 28-year-old stunt woman Desiree Kerns filed a $10-million lawsuit Thursday against Airwolf Production Co. and Universal Studios, claiming that their negligence resulted in her being seriously burned during filming of a stunt last Feb. 25.

Kerns said she was told to push a button to trigger a smoke device attached to the underside of a truck in which she was riding during filming of a scene for the “Airwolf” television series at Indian Dunes near Castaic.

But instead of a smoke device, the truck was rigged with an incendiary bomb, and when Kerns pushed the button there was a fiery explosion, engulfing her in flames, the suit alleges.

“From the point that I pushed the button and jumped (from the moving truck) it blanked out for me,” she told reporters Thursday.

She said she regained consciousness when someone put water on her face while a helicopter was flying her to the Sherman Oaks Burn Center for treatment.

“That was when I said, ‘I am not doing that any more,’ ” she said in a sidewalk press conference in the Civic Center.

She said second- and third-degree burns to her face, neck, scalp and one arm required skin grafts during her nine days in the hospital.

Kerns, who has worked as a stunt woman for seven years and has a brother who is a stunt man, said she hopes that her lawsuit will be a stimulus for some kind of safety regulations to prevent “needless injury or death” to others.

“Not long ago, it was necessary to ensure the safety of animals being filmed on sets,” she said. “I hope that it now is time to do the same for people.”

She said news coverage had focused attention on “only a few of the more dramatic accidents that occur in our business,” including a recent helicopter crash during filming of another segment for the “Airwolf” series in which stunt man Reid Rondell died.

“But there are many, many other accidents that do not get public attention,” she said.

“Desiree’s lucky, because she can speak out,” Kerns’ lawyer, Gerald Kroll, said Thursday.

As for the $10-million damage suit they had just filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Kroll said: “We are not talking money, we are talking about people and lives.”

Universal Studios had no comment on the suit.