CLICK HERE to view Issue 49 – Propane Blast
This is a safety news alert on a large settlement awarded to a plaintiff in a lawsuit from a propane explosion. The article does not go into how the explosion occurred, but the explosion happened in 2004. Eight months before the explosion the property owner Mr. Kendall installed the propane system and appliances himself. Then he had the defendants come out and set a tank and the service person performed a leak test. A leak was found with the water heater. The serviceperson shut off the valve to the appliance and told the owner there was an issue with his water heater. The service person did not tag and lock-out the appliance nor did the defendant follow-up with Mr. Kendall to see if repairs where made so they could come back out and perform another leak test. Later Mr. Kendall replaced the control valve on the water heater himself. On the day of the explosion Mr. Kendall and his wife were on a cruise but their family was house-sitting for them. At 5 in the morning one of the family members woke up and thought they smelled gas, but then fell back asleep two hours later the building which included a horse arena and living quarters exploded. In the trial it was also brought to attention that the defendant had not properly supplied safety information to the customer. Due to these actions the defendant which was a propane company that was owned by a couple of local electrical cooperatives was found 65% at fault and Mr. Kendall was found 35% at fault.
