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Show City Wins 73 Fire Negligence Suit Members of volunteer fire and water . departments represented by Park City Municipal Corporation Corpora-tion were found not quilty of negligent practices Thursday of charges surrounding the malfunction mal-function of three fire hydrants during the Main Street con-flageration con-flageration of August 27, 1976. The fire destroyed five principal buildings and six flourishing businesses, wiping out almost the entire 400 block on Main Street's east side. A jurry of eight Summit County residents presented a verdict of "No Cause" after a three-day long trial in Coalville presided over by Judge E. Baldwin. The often pondered question of negligence was raised formally by a consortium of insurance companies com-panies who paid claims three years ago for damages totalling almost $300,000 to Dave Novelle. Don Prescott and the estate of Ray Anne Prescott, The Henry Spriggs Company and First Security Bank stemming from the disaster. The insurance companies filed suit against the Park City Municipal Corporation in an attempt to recover those funds, alleging the Fire and Water departments were aware of the faulty fire hydrants and failed to take the prescribed steps to make them operable. The plaintiff s attorneys, Messrs. Petty, Morgan and Nixon maintained that the fire was containable in a small attached shed behind the Poison Creek Drug Store when the volunteer fire department arrived, arriv-ed, but time lost after the hydrants malfunctioned, allowed the fire to grow beyond the level of containment ravaging everything every-thing in its path. Park City was defended by Attorney Tim Hansen, representing represent-ing the City'a insurance company. com-pany. Great American. Grounds for the suit are found under the government immunity act which states that a city assumes limited liability in certain circumstances for misbehavior mis-behavior on the parts of employees em-ployees which results in personal loss or damage. The ca se had important potential ramifications primarily because the performance of firemen at the scene of a blaze is rarely challenged and had the plaintiffs won their case, insurance insur-ance premiums for municipal governments could sky rocke' throughout the stale and countn as companies hedge themselves against future suits. "Firemen would be afraid to answer an alarm unless they had a lawyer to go along with them", said Park City Fire Chief Tom Sullivan who compared the situation to doctors facing the ( Please turn to page four ) Accounts of 73 Fire Clash; "Nealiaence" Not Proven in Court spread, endangering other buildings build-ings and was not isolated in the shed. ( originally it was thought that an oil storage tank had exploded spreading the flames but an investigation indicated that the blast was caused by a sudden burst of oxygen into a building already furiously burn- ino.) If We Had Water All three plaintiff attorneys refered to Chief Sullivan's remarks re-marks to George Sorenson, a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune that "If we had water we could fire. Suddenly, after pressure began flowing through the hoses, the hydrant started leaking. First a little, soon a lot, then finally exploding, causing pressure to wane in the hoses. Peter Park manning one of the hoses at the time recalled screaming .for water as the hoses went dry then laying his nozzle down retreating back as the fire's intensity grew. Faucet Wouldn't Release Water On Park Avenue, firemen immediately disconnected the testified that the hydrant had been inspected prior to the fire and found it leaking a bit but otherwise o.k. Turn Both Ways What happened with the number two and four hydrants? It came to light that some of The City's plugs turned to the right and some to the left the plaintiff attorneys maintained that firemen had turned them the wrong w. ay which resulted in the early difficulties with the number two and the number four being that the firemen were unaware that .the hydrants were faulty, stating .that no one in his right mind would try to turn on a plug he knew to be defective during a serious fire. He drew attention ..to the testimony that the hydrants had been previously checked claiming that it would have been impossible to test them daily. Reasonably Prudent Hansen closed, reiterating the instruction of Judge Baldwin that "Negligence" is the failure to do what a reasonably prudent person would do given a similar set of circumstances. He maintained that the firemen, water department depart-ment and Park City municipal Corporation in this light were definately not guilty of negligent practices. With that, the verdict was up to the eight jurors who after some hours of deliberation found the City not guilty. Now three years later, the City has upgraded fire fighting equipment and individual skills surrounding the fighting of fires. New hydrants have been installed and are regularly checked. Despite the thoroughness of this week's trial, three years is a long time and people forget. Many questions surrounding that night in 1973 have yet to be answered satisfactorily in the minds of many and probably never will be. It was a night of immense tragedy multiplied by a strange chain of unforeseen misfortunes occurring precisely at the wrong time in the wrong place. Fortunately there were no personal injuries. Continued from page one ) constant threat of malpractice procedings. Also, early in the trial it i ecame apparent that the City is risured against municipal liability u $50,000 and had the plaintiff s teen awarded damages in excess of that figure the difference would have to be made up by the tax payers. For two-and-one-half days the ihrce attorneys for the plaintiffs paraded witness after witness reforc the enpaneled jurors, piecing the events of that i lfanious night together like a iuntjig saw puzzle in an attempt to point the finger of guilt and riegligcnce towards Park City tmploees. Dave Novelle. whose Park '.venue home was partially destroyed in the blaze, told how tie had discovered the fire slightly after1) p.m. apparently isolated in a small shed attached to the rear of the Poison Creek Drug Store. The question of the fire's location and intensity at the time the firemen arrived was a key point in the arguments of both plaintiff and defense attorneys. Had th e fire been contained in the shed at that time, as some testified, it possibly could have been brought under control before spreading to the other buildings, if the water supply not failed. Had the fire already spread to the interior of the Drug Store and to the adjoining Oak which housed "My Favorite Things", the Prescott's antique and clothing store, the brief loss of water due to the faulty hydrants could have been inconsequential in-consequential as the fire was by that time out of control. Although no one could be sure if the . other buildings were burning from the inside when the fire department began fighting the fire, a testimony by Jim Santy seemed to lend support to that . " ' ' - . ss.5 - ,f ' ; , '- ' r it ; theory. He drove the Mack pumper and arrived shortly behind the International. After realizing that the number one hydrant across Park Avenue from the Blue Church had blown up under pressure when the International Inter-national hoses were connected, f.e drove the Mack down 4th treet to M ain and the number ur hydrant in front of the Memorial Building. There, sev- il firemen were struggling with i valve, unable to get water, vst before reaching the imber four plug. Santy said the ont of the Oak exploded igniting uniture which had been pre-iously pre-iously moved out to the street nd safety. Mr. Hansen, the City's attorn-v. attorn-v. emphasized the Santy test-nony test-nony in his closing argument Maintaining that despite several Mops at dry hydrants, he arrived soon after the alarm sounded. nd at his arrival witnessed the lak exploding into flames indicating in-dicating that the fire had been burning inside the building .for some time. The Attorney also maintained that the presence of belongings in the street show ed that the fire by that time had have contained the fire." All along, the hydrants remained the focal point in examination and cross examination of witnesses. The number one hydrant which exploded under pressure soon after fire hoses were connected, the number two hydrant which defied firemen until it was finally made to work by Bud Henley after being abandoned for 15 to 20 minutes. And the number four plug in front of the Memorial Building whose spigot was apparently turned the wrong way, resulting in the top being twisted off rendering it useless. Three out of four hydrants in the immediate vicinity of the fire had failed to produce a crucial flow of water resulting in a delay getting "fire streams" on the blaze. How long to the minute the delay lasted was an important question but one which after three years impossible to answer. Tom Sullivan and Earne Anderson An-derson recounted how they had pulled up to the number one hydrant across from the Blue Church immediately connecting hoses and runnning lines to the hose from the number one hydrant and ran with it to the number two further up the street. Their frustration grew to desperation des-peration as several men could not make the faucet release its valuable store of water. Next arriving at the number three hydrant on Main Street, lines were connected and water began to flow onto the raging blaze. After the number three began yielding water, firemen rushed to hook onto the number four in front of the Memorial Building to keep the fire from spreading north down the street. Firefighters were met with horror at the number four when after much tugging the top of the plug screwed off. Finally, 15 to 20 minutes later the number two was turned or and delivering water. After much testimony it appeared ap-peared as if the number one hydrant had been damaged after being hit by a number of cars. Sullivan testified that it was always getting hit. However, water department employees flfiBigiWi'lii.-fir.i-itf'iiti.irrfrB rendered totally useless. Testimony was given that arrows were painted on the hydrants indicating the direction each valve turned but other testimony indicated that the arrows were not visible. The plaintiffs rested their case maintaining that there were no arrows, resulting in the faucets being turned the wrong way and, that the firemen and water department employees knew the number one hydrant was bad but made no effort to correct the situation. They further maintained maintain-ed that the City was negligent in hydrant maintenance which caused caus-ed the crucial loss- of water allowing the fire which was containable to grow to a devastat- ing magnitude. Defense attorney Tim Hansen, had made effective use of the plaintiffs witnesses during cross examinations and called only a few to the stand. Hansen argued that the fire was already out of control when the firemen arrived and the brief loss of water was inconsequential to containment of the fire at that point. He claimed |