When Los Angeles firefighters arrived at the scene of a car fire in Wilmington earlier this year, they found a semitrailer completely engulfed in flames.
But they didn’t know the truck was a time bomb.
Firefighters positioned vehicles around the fire, which was burning two large compressed natural gas tanks to power the vehicles. Minutes later, the truck exploded, injuring nine firefighters, two of them seriously, according to a new lawsuit filed against the trucking company and others.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court by seven firefighters, also named the manufacturer of the tank and fuel system, as well as the truck driver.
Firefighters accuse Costa Mesa-based Hexagon Agility, Daimler Trucks North America and several other companies of negligence, strict product liability and similar violations in the design of tanks used to transport compressed natural gas. Damage Complaints.
At approximately 7 a.m. on February 14, the Los Angeles Fire Department received a report of a truck fire on North Alameda Street.
Firefighters followed standard procedures for vehicle fires, with the nozzle man located on the west side of the vehicle spraying water. After about six minutes, the fire was almost extinguished and water was poured from the east side. Amid all of this standard procedure, the complaint alleges, firefighters were unaware of the contents of the tanks on the burning vehicles.
The ensuing explosion rocked the Wilmington community, sending up a plume of black smoke and a fireball large enough to damage transformers on nearby power lines. Firefighters were knocked down by the explosion and some suffered severe burns, the complaint said.
The firefighters “suffered injuries and bodily harm, suffered medical bills, lost income/earning capacity, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and other damages and will continue to suffer such damages in the future,” according to the lawsuit.
The complaint states that when the initial 911 call was made about the fire, there was no information about the compressed natural gas. Truck driver Shania Janea Sutton also failed to warn firefighters about the truck’s contents when they arrived at the scene, and there was no written warning on the tank.
The firefighters who filed the lawsuit include Andres Saenz II, Casey Dunn, Daniel Goen, Howard Weiserweaver, Ian Gallardo, Robert Ward and Tom Rodriguez. They claim the compressed natural gas was stored in a storage tank with defective design and warnings. The complaints said the defects made the tank “unsafe and dangerous for consumer use.”
The charred remains of a truck exploded in February in Wilmington, injuring several firefighters.
(Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The plaintiff stated that the defendants knew that the tanks could be dangerous if not handled properly.
The firefighters are represented by attorney Matthew Nicholas.
“The possibility that a truck running on compressed natural gas could malfunction like this and explode like a bomb in the middle of a city street, rather than safely releasing the pressure, is an unacceptable risk,” Nicholas said in a statement. “If “Without hidden defects in the product preventing safe release of pressure, this cannot happen.”
Daimler Trucks North America said it does not comment on pending litigation. Hexagon Agile did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
