FARMINGTON – The owner of property near the former Life Enrichment Advancing People, Inc. office building on the Farmington Falls Road has filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit and two companies, claiming that their negligence led to the explosion that damaged nearby houses and mobile homes.
Randall Dean, owner of NorthPoint Properties, LLC and a Madison resident, filed his suit in the Franklin County court system, naming LEAP; Techno Metal Post Maine, LLC; and CN Brown Energy, Inc. as defendants. Techno Metal Post and CN Brown were previously named as defendants in lawsuits filed on behalf of LEAP maintenance supervisor Larry Lord and his family as well as Capt. Michael Bell’s estate and firefighters injured in last year’s blast.
The suits relate to the Sept. 16, 2019 explosion at the LEAP Inc. office building previously located at 313 Farmington Falls Road. Larry Lord, the maintenance supervisor for LEAP, was inside the building with a Farmington Fire Rescue crew investigating a report of a gas leak when the explosion occurred. Six firefighters were injured and Capt. Bell was killed in the blast. Damage to surrounding structures displaced more than 30 people.
NorthPoint Properties and Dean own the Evergreen Knoll Mobile Home Park and 11 residential home units located on Evergreen Lane, near the site of the explosion. The suit claims that the plaintiffs suffered “significant damages to mobile homes, loss of rental income, infrastructure damage, including plumbing and electrical, cost to transport and set up replacement homes, and the cost to remediate the site by removing potentially injurious debris.”
According to the Fire Marshal’s Office, the underground line leading from the propane tank to the building was severed by the auger head of a bollard – a post used to direct traffic – on Sept. 10, 2019, six days prior to the explosion. Investigators previously indicated that bollard, one of four installed by Techno Metal Post ME to protect an external air conditioning unit, was drilled into the paved parking lot and severed the line.
Similar to the previous suits filed with the court in October, the complaint filed by Dean and NorthPoint alleges negligence on behalf of Techno Metal Post in failing to verify the location of the underground propane line. A separate count alleges that CN Brown was negligent, relating to the lack of a leak check on the propane tank prior to the explosion.
That latter count relates to the technician dispatched to the LEAP Inc. building on Sept. 13, 2019, the day after LEAP employees discovered that the building had no access to hot water. Lord and another employee learned about the interruption the next morning and checked the building’s propane tank, with Lord then calling CN Brown. The technician later signed a consent agreement indicating that he had filled the tank without performing a leak check, as required by law.
Unlike the suits previously filed on behalf of Lord and the firefighters, the new complaint also names LEAP as a defendant. It alleges that LEAP “breached the duty of reasonable care by failing to ensure that a competent person inspected the premises to determine the location of underground hazards prior to allowing Techno Metal Post ME to penetrate the ground and install bollards.”
“The propane explosion, which resulted from Defendant LEAP’s breach of duty, caused damage to the Plaintiffs,” the complaint alleges.
In addition to the three counts of negligence, the suit also alleges counts of strict liability against Techno Metal Post and CN Brown Energy, claiming the companies undertook actions – placing bollards without identifying underground utilities and filling a propane tank with a leak check, respectively – that constituted “abnormally dangerous activity.” In this case, the strict liability complaint alleges that the defendant is responsible for the plaintiff’s damages even if there isn’t a finding of negligence on the part of the defendant.
There have been no additional filings in relation to the lawsuits filed by Lord, Bell’s estate and the injured firefighters, as of Thursday morning.
