A newly filed lawsuit alleges that the deadly explosion at a Bucks County nursing home just before Christmas was the result of negligence on the part of the facility’s operator and its natural gas supplier.
Filed by Philadelphia law firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky on behalf of four survivors of the explosion, the lawsuit claims that Saber Healthcare Group, Peco, and others failed to appropriately respond to and treat a gas leak at Bristol Health & Rehab Center, and neglected to evacuate the building.
The resulting explosion, which devastated the facility the afternoon of Dec. 23, killed two people and injured about 20 others.
“Our pre-suit investigation left no doubt that the defendants were responsible for this foreseeable and preventable tragedy just before Christmas,” said lead attorney Robert J. Mongeluzzi.
In addition to Peco and Saber Healthcare Group, the lawsuit names Exelon, Saber Healthcare Holdings, and the nursing home as defendants.
The plaintiffs were among those on site at the time of the blast, the lawsuit says. They include former nursing home resident Barbara Stall, a paraplegic whose motorized wheelchair was allegedly destroyed during the incident, as well as facility aides Stacy Ballard and Davidetta Blay, and telecom contractor James Broderick. Blay and Broderick’s spouses are also included as plaintiffs.
“Each continues to receive medical treatment for the physical and emotional injuries,” the law firm said in a statement. The lawsuit, the firm added, is believed to be the first filed to allege negligence.
The blast rocked the Bristol facility just after 2 p.m., coming after Peco crews responded to reports of a gas odor earlier in the day, according to Inquirer reports. Some residents, The Inquirer later reported, had been smelling gas in the 174-bed facility in the days leading up to the explosion, but none were told to evacuate.
The complaint, filed Monday in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, alleges that despite the gas odor, the defendants did not take steps to evacuate, which it calls a “reckless and outrageous” decision.
The odor, the complaint alleges, began permeating the building at least a half-hour before the explosion, and the defendants treated the situation with “carelessness, negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and outrageous conduct,” the complaint said.
Peco and Exelon, the lawsuit claims, never tested a gas pipeline that fed the nursing home for leaks and failed to properly diagnose and fix the leak once on site. Exelon, the parent corporation of Peco, declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
Zachary Shamberg, Saber’s chief of government affairs, declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
The age and condition of the gas line running to the nursing home remain unclear, but Peco has said that it has about 742 miles of substandard gas lines across the state that need to be replaced — accounting for roughly 5% of its gas service, but 82% of leaks, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
The company’s plans, The Inquirer previously reported, call for all those lines to be replaced by 2035.
As a result of the explosion, the complaint alleges that the plaintiffs were forced to “suffer catastrophic personal injuries, had to survive harrowing rescue attempts, and watch their friends and colleagues lose their lives and similarly suffered traumatic injuries.”
The cause of the explosion is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, which said it expects to release a preliminary report on the explosion roughly three weeks from now. Previously, the board said investigators would test the natural gas service line that runs from the street to the basement of the facility, would interview witnesses, and would gather records.
In the wake of the blast, Saber has relocated roughly 120 residents to local hospitals and other assisted-living facilities. The company said it was evaluating its evacuation procedures.
Muthoni Nduthu, a 52-year-old nurse at the facility and mother to three sons, was killed in the blast. The second person killed was a resident at the nursing home, but they have not yet been publicly identified.
“This explosion, and the loss of life and horrific injuries that accompanied it, were the tragic results of Defendants’ failure to timely respond to the gas leak, appropriately treat the leak, and evacuate the building in response to the leak,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages to be determined by a jury.
