Adair Grain, the owner of the fertilizer plant that exploded last week in West, Texas, was sued by townspeople and insurance firms seeking damages over the deadly blast.
At least 30 residents of the small town and four local insurance agencies are suing the family-owned company, according to court records and the victims’ lawyers. The April 17 explosion killed at least 14, injured more than 200 and damaged more than 70 homes and businesses in a five-block area.
“We filed quickly for one reason: to be able to participate in the investigation as soon as the federal government releases the scene,” said Paul Grinke, a Dallas lawyer who filed a lawsuit Friday in state court in Waco on behalf of four local insurance agencies and 17 of their customers. “The calls just keep coming in. We’re over 30 individual clients now, including some who were uninsured.”
Andrea Jones Gutierrez, 40, a single mother, sued the plant owner in a separate action for the loss of “all her worldly possessions,” physical injuries and emotional distress. She lived across the street from West Fertilizer, in the apartment complex destroyed in the blast.
“Looking at the pictures of that apartment complex, it’s hard to think anyone would be alive, and I believe there may be some fatalities there,” Randy Roberts, Gutierrez’s lawyer, said Tuesday in a phone interview. “When Andrea first heard the commotion, she stepped outside on the side of the complex opposite from the plant just at the moment of the explosion, and the building shielded her from the brunt of the blast. Fortunately, her son was at church at the time, or he wouldn’t be here today.”
Daniel Keeney, a spokesman for West Fertilizer, said the company isn’t commenting on pending litigation.
“Our focus remains on the fact-finding,” he said. “We continue to do everything we can to understand what happened to ensure nothing like this ever happens again in any community. To that end, the owners and staff of West Fertilizer are working closely with investigating agencies. We have encouraged all employees to assist in the fact-finding to whatever degree possible.”
Roberts said he “seriously doubts” that Donald and Wanda Adair, who own the fertilizer plant and its Adair Grain parent company, have enough personal or corporate assets to cover all the blast damages.
“There’s not any sprawling corporate network behind Adair Grain,” Roberts said. “I’d be surprised if there’s enough.”
Grinke said his firm’s research indicates the plant may have had only a $1 million primary insurance policy.
“I’ve not been made aware of any umbrella policy or excess insurance coverage,” he said. “This was a mom-andpop shop.”
At least nine of the 14 victims killed in the blast were first responders, Grinke said, and their families may be entitled to compensation from the U.S. government.
Grinke said many residents of West, a central Texas farming community about 20 miles from Waco, are rallying around the Adair family with no apparent desire to sue a respected neighbor.
“I have no smoking gun” that proves the Adairs made mistakes that caused the blast, Grinke said. “I’ll go wherever the evidence leads, and if the evidence proves Mr. Adair had nothing to do with it, I’ll be the first to dismiss my suit.”
President Barack Obama has ordered that the U.S. flag at federal buildings and military facilities in Texas be flown at half-staff today in memory of the victims who died in the explosion. Obama signed the proclamation Wednesday.
Obama will attend a memorial service today at Baylor University in Waco. He had already planned to be in the state for the dedication of former President George W. Bush’s presidential library atSouthern Methodist University.
Meanwhile, federal and state officials investigating last week’s deadly blast are trying to determine whether a fire at the plant could have ignited a supply of ammonium nitrate. But how much of the highly explosive fertilizer was stored at the site is unclear because of a gap in federal regulations.
The gap indicates that measures taken after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attack to monitor potentially dangerous substances have been less effective than anticipated.
“We don’t know what chemicals were there, we don’t know what chemicals are there, and at this point, we do not know the quantities that were on hand at the time of the incident,” Kelly Kistner, Texas assistant state fire marshal, told reporters.
After the 2001 attacks, the Department of Homeland Security began requiring all companies with more than 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate to register with the agency.
Officials say the owners of West Fertilizer did not register. But they also said they don’t know whether the company needed to do so. According to state records, it had the capacity to store 270 tons of the chemical.
In other developments, the Czech Republic plans to donate some $200,000 to help the Texas town of West recover from the devastating explosion.
The government decided to the provide aid in solidarity because a significant number of people in the town of 2,700 have Czech roots. The blast damaged numerous homes in the town.
The Foreign Ministry said Czech Ambassador to the U.S. Petr Gandalovic visited West last week and talked to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, West Mayor Tommy Muska and other officials about how to help.
A ministry statement Wednesday said the money will go toward repairing property in the town.
Information for this article was contributed by Laurel Brubaker Calkins, Jef Feeley and Mike Lee of Bloomberg News; and by Ramit Plushnick-Masti and staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/25/2013