Due to a home explosion and fire, a personal injury lawsuit has been filed on behalf of one of the survivors against the parent company of Kansas Gas Service for “ultra hazardous and abnormally dangerous activities” and negligence, as reported by The Wichita Eagle for Kansas.com
The suit, filed in Sedgwick County District Court, is asking for over $75,000 in damages.
M.F. lived in the home, in the 700 block of N. Minnesota, with her boyfriend, W.R. Jr., and two year-old daughter, K.R., at the time of the fire on December 21. All three were critically injured.
W.R. Jr. and K.R. have since been released from the hospital – while M.F. remains in Via Christi Hospital in St. Francis.
The suit is filed on behalf of M.F.’s mother, S.V. The suit states that of all three members of the family, which were met by firefighters outside of their destroyed home, M.F. suffered with “profound personal injuries.”
Fire investigators determined that the fire was due to a gas leak ignited by a space heater – but the house wasn’t hooked up to any utilities. Somehow, per investigators, gas accumulated inside the home prior to the explosion.
The family was able to use space heaters to warm their home by running an extension cord from their property to a neighbor’s home.
A leak, in the main gas line that runs along Minnesota Avenue and is parallel with the house, was detected by the Kansas Gas Service.
Fire Captain Stuart Bevis said, “We don’t know where the fuel gas came from, but we’ve eliminated A, B and C. Nobody’s been able to locate any other source.”
Soil samples have been taken for investigators to rule out any other possible sources of gas leakage.
Andrew Hutton, the lawyer representing S.V., said that his firm’s experts checked the gas line and determined that “it was broke.” Hutton added, “The tragedy is there were many complaints before this happened, and there did not seem to be any corrective action.”
Captain Bevis said that in the five days prior to the fire there were approximately 200 calls from around the city to 911 regarding gas odors. But, Captain Bevis stipulated, there was nothing that pointed them to the area of the blast.
Hutton said that a relative of the family had remarked, just a few days prior to the fire, that the family had reported feeling both “loopy” and nauseated. Hutton added, “They weren’t responding very well, indicating that gas was accumulating.”
Hutton’s firm is now in the process of establishing just when the gas lines were last inspected. He said, “We don’t know if this area had been checked for a while, there are a lot of cast-iron pipes left in Wichita. These cast-iron pipes just break.”
Being hurt due to the negligence of others is grounds for a personal injury lawsuit where a monetary award will most likely be made. Go to our directory and contact a personal injury lawyer near you today for help!