Explosion victims get $5.6 MA jury has awarded two Orange County men $5.6 million for injuries they suffered in a 1996 gas explosion in Blooming Grove. On Aug. 21, 1996, Joe Trevorah and his friend Jimmy Abenante volunteered to help Trevorah's neighbor install a hot water heater. A propane gas explosion was sparked while they were installing the heater. Trevorah and Abenante were both burned over more than 50 percent of their bodies. They were airlifted to Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, where they were hospitalized for months with second- and third-degree burns. Last month, an Orange County jury awarded Abenante, of Middletown, and Trevorah, of Blooming Grove, a combined $5.6 million. The jury found the gas company, Coleman Gas Service, a Washingtonville division of Connecticut-based Star Gas Corp., negligent in the maintenance of the liquid propane gas system. "I feel vindicated in many areas," Trevorah said yesterday. "The money is nice and it will help me but it will never make up for the physical and emotional pain. It's been a long six years." While Trevorah lay in a three-week coma, his wife, who was 40 at the time, died. Doctors said it was a heart attack from the stress." When I woke up, I couldn't see, I couldn't talk," Trevorah said. "I had burnt corneas and lungs. No one would tell me about my wife." Trevorah and Abenante are still friends. They speak on a regular basis. "He's doing all right," Trevorah said. "He's beat down worse than I am." Since the explosion, the men have endured a combined 100 medical procedures, including skin grafts. They still face more surgery. Both men have had a tough time working steady jobs because of the burns on their hands. Trevorah couldn't work as a gas mechanic at Con Edison and Abenante could not work carpentry and masonry jobs. Their attorney, James Denlea, said the verdict is an important hurdle for the men." The jury sent the message to the gas company that it cannot act in the way it did," Denlea said. One attorney for the gas company declined to comment. The other was unavailable yesterday. The past six years have been especially difficult for Trevorah, who underwent many financial and emotional problems. Still, he continues to have faith. "When I woke up [from the coma], I told the doctor, "Thanks for saving my life,' " Trevorah said." Now I want to live my life." RPI, contractor lose $4.5M lawsuit. Electrician sued after suffering serious injuries while on a high-voltage repair job at campus research centerAn East Chatham man severely injured from an electric shock while making a repair at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been awarded $4.5 million in damages after a two-week trial. Jordan Neissel, an expert high-voltage line splicer, was working in an electric gear box to free a cable on May 27, 2004, when he grabbed a live wire believing the power was off. Instead, 4,160 volts of electricity surged through his body, seriously burning his arms, hands and his chest. Late Thursday, a state Supreme Court jury found RPI and contractor High Voltage Electric Services Inc. liable and ordered them to pay Neissel $4.5 million. Neissel, who was 25 at the time of the incident, and his father, Russell Neissel of Old Chatham, were contractors with Mohawk Valley Utility Construction Corp. But that day, they were hired by M. Sher & Son to assist RPI's regular provider, High Voltage Electric Services Inc., in fixing an outage in the Materials Research Center on campus. After Neissel was shocked, his father and a co-worker rushed to his aid. Together, they freed the severely burned and unconscious man from the wire. Neissel spent three weeks at the Westchester Medical Center Burn Unit and had four surgeries. In taking his case to court, Neissel said no one told him that the electricity in the MRC building had been turned back on before he went down to try to identify the problematic cable. He also claimed the general environment where the electrical outage was based was dangerous and not secure. RPI spokeswoman Allison Newman said the verdict will be appealed. "Rensselaer always does its best to protect the safety of everyone on campus," she said. Attorneys for HVES, which was also found liable for damages, didn't return a call for comment. In court papers filed before the case went to trial, Albany County state Supreme Court Justice John Egan declined to dismiss the lawsuit. He wrote: "Defendants can not be relieved of liability because the risk of getting electrocuted was obvious or known to plaintiff when it is clear that the facts and circumstances surrounding the accident led him to believe that there was absolutely no risk of being electrocuted at that time. "Whether plaintiff's acts and omissions under the circumstances were reasonable for a high voltage electrician are for a jury to decide," Egan wrote. When the verdict came in late Thursday, Neissel and his lawyer, Jeffrey Carton, cried with joy. Carton said Neissel had a great reputation as a high-voltage cable splicer. "He excelled at it," Carton said. "And he made a lot of money. Now, no amount of money will ever make up for the physical and psychological losses he has suffered." Although Neissel wants to return to work in some field, his future is uncertain because of the significant loss of strength in his upper body and post-traumatic stress disorder, Carton said. "His biceps were killed in the electrocution. They were cut away. And muscle doesn't come back," he said. Louis-Dreyfus pays burned security guard $2 millionA former security guard received $2 million settlement from owners of a Stamford building where he was badly burned in 1996 when an electrical panel exploded in his face, his attorney said. Shawn Arnette, 28, received the settlement from Louis-Dreyfus Property Group Inc. of Stamford for his loss of income, physical and emotional pain and suffering, and future medical bills. Neither party conceded wrongdoing in the out-of-court resolution of the 1996 lawsuit, according to a statement from Arnette's lawyer. The suit stemmed from a blast and fire on March 26, 1996, in the electrical closet of a building at 24 Richmond Hill Ave. Another guard had dropped the building's spare master key from its hook behind an electrical panel in the closet. The key fell between the panel and the wall, and as Arnette slid his hand along the panel, the key dropped from his hand onto a 480-volt bar, triggering an explosion, a fire marshal's report showed. Arnette suffered second- and third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body, including his face, hands and legs, said his attorney, Jeff Carton of White Plains, N.Y. His polyester uniform melted into his wounds, fire officials said at the time of the accident. Another guard pulled a fire extinguisher from behind the security desk and put out the flames on Arnette, former Stamford Fire Chief Ron Graner said. The fire prompted an evacuation of 175 employees from the building, but the blaze was contained within the 8-by-10-foot closet. Arnette, a former Norwalk resident who now lives in northern Fairfield County, endured extensive skin grafting and treatment for three weeks at the Westchester County Medical Center Burn Unit, the release states. Arnette was unable to maintain his three jobs - as a security guard, driver and deli clerk - through which he'd been earning a weekly wage of about $665, the suit claimed. Security guards used the electrical closet in the building's first floor main lobby as a storage room for coats and tools, unaware that doing so was dangerous, according to the fire marshal's report. Arnette's suit, filed in October 1996 in state Superior Court in Stamford, claims that the company allowed the dangerous conditions in the closet and failed to warn or protect Arnette of the risk of electrocution or explosion. Carton declined to comment beyond details included in the release, citing a confidentiality agreement between parties in the suit. Kevin Tepas, a Stamford attorney for the plaintiffs, did not return a call seeking comment. To discuss a burn injury and potential legal remedies, contact the sponsors of Burn Injury Online. |
