By Mike Smith
The Montana Standard
BUTTE, Mont. — The owner of the collapsed Uptown building that burned in a recent fire says Butte-Silver Bow firefighters let it smolder until it “turned into an inferno” instead of extinguishing it beforehand.
Neil “Joe” Lynch Jr. also claimed in a court filing Thursday that once fire broke out March 29, “inconsistent fire suppression” steps over the next two days caused it to last longer, destroy salvageable materials, damage adjacent property and “spew smoke” and contaminant.
The county also was negligent by hauling asbestos-contaminated materials from the burned building through neighborhoods without tarps on its dump trucks, putting its workers and the public at risk, Lynch says.
The claims were added to a lawsuit Lynch filed against the county last year saying it failed to mitigate water damage to the vacant building at 750 S. Wyoming St. in 2009 and is largely to blame for it collapsing last June. The county says Lynch is to blame by not maintaining the five-story building.
A judge recently ruled in a separate case that the county could demolish the rest of the building on its own, but he did not address liability and costs. Those issues could be decided in other lawsuits, including the one Lynch filed against the county.
Cynthia Walker, an attorney in Butte representing the county in the case, did not return a phone call Thursday seeking comment on Lynch’s new claims.
When contacted early Thursday afternoon for comment, Lynch’s attorney -- Kevin Vainio of Butte -- asked the Standard to call back in five minutes. Two subsequent calls three hours apart were answered with a recorded voice saying the person’s mailbox was full and could not receive new messages.
Lynch and the county have been in disputes since the south section of the building caved in last June. Each says the other should pay for demolition work the county is doing now following a fire that engulfed the building on March 29.
Lynch’s new claims stem from Friday, March 27, when smoke was seen coming from beneath rubble in the partially collapsed building.
Firefighters doused the bricks, boards and other debris for hours that day and excavated some of the rubble trying to find the source of the smoldering, but they could not.
Fire Chief Jeff Miller said previously they decided to monitor the rubble over the weekend instead of dousing it continuously, in part because it still might not work and water could flood neighboring businesses. They would reassess the situation the next Monday.
But flames broke out at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, quickly engulfed the entire building and continued to flare up and smolder for days. A judge said the county could do whatever necessary to address the fire and gave it the OK to demolish the rest of the building afterwards.
But Lynch says firefighters left the building unattended that Saturday while the initial smoldering continued.
It says Lynch went to the scene mid-morning that day and Fire Marshal John Lasky was the only firefighter there. He told Lynch they were “going to let the smolder go over the weekend to see if it would flare up,” the amended lawsuit says.
By failing to act, “a faint smoke turned into an inferno” that Sunday morning, it says.
County officials then loaded asbestos-contaminated material into dump trucks in an unsafe manner, it says. The trucks were then driven “outside the regulated zone” and through neighborhoods while releasing asbestos slurry, it says.
The county violated its own ordinance by failing to tarp the dump trucks on its trips to the landfill, the filing says.
Miller, the fire chief, said he could not comment further Thursday because the department’s efforts were now part of litigation. He said previously that serious thought and consideration went into all its decisions.
Public Works Director Dave Schultz said previously that clean dirt was placed on top of the material in the dump trucks and that was a safer way to haul the material because tarps could blow off.
Thursday’s filing says Lynch tried to commence clean-up but his efforts “to remedy a situation he did not cause have been met with portrayals of him as irresponsible and villainous by the agents of Butte-Silver Bow.”
“He has been excoriated in the press by Butte-Silver Bow agents,” it said. “Every honest effort ... to resolve the problem has been met with threat of criminal prosecution and civil action, hostility and coercive intimidation” by county officials.
In a ruling on demolition matters following the fire, District Judge Loren Tucker said Lynch had “stated that he is ready, willing and able to act.”
“However, his conduct does not coincide with his statements,” the judge wrote. “He has not acted timely to secure necessary permits. The Court finds that his actual approach was to seek delay. Even if the Court somehow misapprehends Lynch’s approach, his demolition ‘plan’ is no plan.”
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(c)2015 The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.)
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