Video shows Florida City business explosion, as new lawsuit filed against gas company
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Video shows Florida City business explosion, as new lawsuit filed against gas company
A new lawsuit has been filed against the gas company Florigas. The attorneys representing Rainbow Novelty/Rainbow Smoke Shop provided NBC6 with the surveillance video from inside and outside the business where the blast happened back on May 24. A total of 10 people had to go to the hospital. Police report reveals there was gas present in the pipeline which likely led to an explosion at Carribean’s Heart restaurant. The blast damaged several businesses, including the smoke shop, and caused part of the roof the collapse at the strip mall on West Palm Drive. The attorney’s representing the Smoke Shop say they cannot locate Anel Costatrueba Company, the subcontractor for the gas line.
The attorneys representing Rainbow Novelty/Rainbow Smoke Shop provided NBC6 with the surveillance video from inside and outside the business where the blast happened back on May 24.
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The owner of a Florida City restaurant that was the scene of an explosion speaks.
They are suing Florigas, alleging in a new lawsuit Wednesday that the gas company made several failures.
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“Florigas is responsible for the negligence of their contractor whether licensed or unlicensed,” attorney Sam Coffey said. “You follow the safety rules that are designed to keep us all safe the explosion never occurs.”
The lawsuit alleges Florigas failed to inspect, connect, leak test and fire the propane delivery system and the propane kitchen equipment in a reasonably safe manner at the Caribbean’s Heart Restaurant to prevent a gas leak, fire and explosion, failed to ensure that its contractor, Anel Costatrueba Company, acted in a reasonably safe manner while inspecting, connecting, leak testing and firing the propane delivery system and the propane kitchen equipment at the Caribbean’s Heart Restaurant to prevent a gas leak, fire and explosion, failed to ensure that the kitchen was properly vented before igniting the kitchen equipment to avoid the buildup of gas that could cause an explosion, failed to prevent a propane explosion and failed to implement reasonable and appropriate methods of operation to ensure that its premises are reasonably safe.
“Fortunately he wasn’t injured so thank goodness for that,” attorney Vivian Fazio said. “We look forward to getting justice for our client.”
A Florida City Police report reveals there was gas present in the pipeline which likely led to an explosion at Carribean’s Heart restaurant. The blast damaged several businesses, including the smoke shop, and caused part of the roof the collapse at the strip mall on West Palm Drive.
A total of 10 people had to go to the hospital.
The police report says a technician from Anel Costatrueba Company told an officer he was working on the gas line to make sure everything was working properly and as soon as he turned on the gas, there was an explosion.
The attorney’s representing the smoke shop say they cannot locate Anel Costatrueba Company.
“We’ve looked through the state of Florida, looked for licenses, social media pages, websites, they don’t exist that we can find,” Coffey said.
The attorneys believe Anel Costatrueba is the subcontractor and that they didn’t follow basic safety rules.
“If you follow the safety rules and you pull a building permit and you used a licensed contractor to install the gas appliances the explosion should never occur,” Coffey said.
The attorneys say they not only want to hold a corporation accountable, they want to change corporate behavior to make things safer.
NBC6 reached out to Florigas several times but they have not responded to our calls and emails.