Oglala Sioux Tribe member, B.B., has filed a personal injury lawsuit naming authorities in northwest Nebraska as negligent for allowing its firefighters to set a controlled burn without first checking the area. According to the Journal Star, B.B. was burned on approximately 25 percent of his body while he lay resting in Whiteclay, a town close to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in south Dakota where he resides.
Authorities are disputing the suit, claiming that the defendants, the Rushville Volunteer Fire Department and the Sheridan County sheriff, are not responsible for B.B.'s injuries.
Along with the county and its fire department, B.B. has also named the village of Rushville and several of its elected officials as defendants.
The controlled grass fire was set by volunteer firefighters on March 6 in a Whiteclay field where B.B. lay. The magnitude of the fire – which burned B.B.'s hands, face, left leg, lower back and abdomen – was increased by the high winds in the area that day. The suit contends that the winds made the controlled burn far more dangerous.
According to the Rushville Fire Department and the public safety officials with Sheridan County, the firefighters were only acting within the scope of their duties when they set the controlled burn – which does not make them liable for B.B.'s injury.
Omaha-based attorney Jeffrey Nix wrote that federal law states that "any volunteers of the defendant Rushville Volunteer Fire Department cannot be held liable for simple or ordinary negligence" and "the alleged harm was not due to the volunteers' willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct or a conscience, flagrant indifference of the rights or safety."
Attorney Tom White, also of Omaha, is representing B.B. White said that B.B. has suffered through several skin graft surgeries and that some of his fingers, irreparable, had to be fused together.
According to White, before the fire B.B., an Army veteran, worked as a bricklayer, cattle brander and car mechanic.
Unspecified damages, for medical costs, loss of earning capacity and pain and suffering, are being sought in the lawsuit.
Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit in February against beer stores, beer makers and distributors for selling alcohol to Pine Ridge residents though they knew it would be consumed, or sold illegally to the reservation. The reservation is officially dry and the tribal leaders blame the sale of alcohol for the chronic alcohol abuse and bootlegging in Pine Ridge.
B.B. was not a plaintiff in the February lawsuit. However, activists claim that the sale of alcohol causes several people to loiter around the liquor stores, and to nap in the surrounding fields.
A case of personal injury can take many forms. If the action, or inaction, of another party has caused you harm, contact a personal injury lawyer to file a lawsuit. Oftentimes a monetary award can be made to help compensate for your pain and suffering.