By Craig Fox
Watertown Daily Times
WATERTOWN — The city firefighter injured in the Feb. 19 fire when a portion of a brick wall fell on him has taken the first step in filing a lawsuit against the city and a series of other agencies.
On May 17, an Albany law firm representing city firefighter T.G. Kolb and his wife, Andrea, filed a notice of a claim for personal injuries, medical expenses, loss of earnings and services, and other damages.
Claiming negligence, he named the city of Watertown, the city’s code enforcement, engineering and fire departments, the board of the Hudson River Black River Regulating District, the town of Watertown and its fire department, Jefferson County, the county’s fire coordinator and its Office of Fire and Emergency Management as defendants.
His wife is claiming loss of services, companionship and society of her husband.
Mr. Kolb was fighting what police say was an intentionally set blaze at 108 Newell St. when a section of the wall collapsed, landing on him and causing serious injuries to him. He spent five weeks in Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, and underwent two surgeries in February.
City Attorney Robert J. Slye will represent the city in the matter.
“We’ll proficiently defend all city defendants,” he said.
Among the claims in the court papers, Mr. Kolb is alleging that the city failed to train code enforcement officers “as to ensure that all properties within the city are inspected in a timely manner.”
The court papers also say that the code enforcement office, the town and the county agencies are negligent for failing “to ensure the claimant was not injured while in the course of fighting fires...”
The town of Watertown Fire Department and county fire and emergency management responded to the fire that destroyed a sprawling empty storage building owned by Samaritan Medical Center.
The Black River district failed to properly inspect and maintain the river’s banks, resulting in the erosion of land that caused “weakness, collapse and structural defects” to the building, the court papers said.
With the filing of the notice of claim, Mr. Kolb has 15 months from the date of the fire to file the lawsuit. The Albany law firm of Alex Dell is representing him.
Mr. Kolb suffered a broken pelvis and hip socket, and sustained internal injuries when the wall collapsed. He underwent surgical procedures to mend the fractures on Feb. 20 and Feb. 27. On March 28, he was released from the hospital and is expected to go through months of treatment.
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As a result of the injuries, Mr. Kolb “has been disabled from all of his usual and daily activities, including employment from the state of this accident and said disability continues to this date,” according to the court papers.
The other firefighter, George Yarnell, suffered minor injuries and was treated and released from Samaritan Medical Center a few hours later. He has since returned to work.
City police charged Scott J. Munson, 18, of 121 St. Mary St., and John H. Long, 18, of 14235 Route 12E, Brownville, with fourth-degree arson, first-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment as a result of the injuries suffered by two firefighters in the course of battling the blaze. They remain in the Metro-Jefferson Public Safety Building on no bail.
Mr. Dell could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Copyright 2018 Watertown Daily Times