Manufacturer Of Pressure Cooker Used In Boston Bombings Strapped For Cash

Boston Marathon Explosions Photo Package

This image from a FBI and Homeland Security joint bulletin issued to law enforcement and obtained by The Associated Press, shows the remains of a pressure cooker that the FBI says was part of one of the bombs that exploded during the Boston Marathon. (AP2013)

A cash-strapped Spanish manufacturing company seeking a financial bailout has been thrust into a public relations nightmare.

The company, Fagor Group, learned last week that the Boston Marathon terrorists used at least one of their pressure cookers as a base for their deadly bombs.

Fagor Group, one of the world's largest manufacturers of household appliances, is seeking 60 million euros ($78 million) it desperately needs to pay off its climbing debt, according to Bloomberg News. But the company is reeling from news that the suspected Boston terrorists used a Fagor pressure cooker to make one of the bombs that killed three people and injured more than 170.

Fagor America Inc., the pressure company’s U.S. base, released a statement last week that it had been contacted by investigators and is cooperating, according to Bloomberg.

“All personnel in Fagor America Inc. are deeply saddened by tragic events in Boston and share in the suffering of the victims and their families,” Fagor America Inc. said in a statement. And we “look forward to learning about the results of the investigation once it is complete and made public by the investigators.”

FBI investigators believe pressure cookers stuffed with nails and metal shards were used by brothers Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 for both bombs. The bombs were placed in bookbags left near gathering crowds at the finish line.

At least one mid-size Fagor pressure cooker bomb was used and it exploded inside a black book-bag. Fagor sells around 50,000 mid-size pressure cooker units in the U.S. each year and are available for $140.

The company is negotiating with the Spanish government for a loan at a time the government has plunged into an economic crisis, which has led to an unemployment rate of 26 percent. According to a Fagor spokeswoman, the market for domestic appliances has fallen by 50 percent since the debt crisis began in 2008.

The U.S. Department of Defense handbook warns U.S. soldiers of pressure cooker bombs or “kitchen made bombs” that could be used as IEDs or Improvised Explosive Devices in places like Afghanistan.