By MARGARET GIBBONS – Times Herald

Insurance companies now are jumping into the litigation surrounding the catastrophic fire that ripped through the Riverwalk at Millennium apartment complex in Conshohocken on Aug. 13.

Four major insurance companies, which insured tenants’ property and/or vehicles, have filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County Court seeking compensation for damages that they and their clients sustained as a result of the conflagration.

The damages sustained by their clients include losses of personal and business property, vehicle damage and expenses for alternative living arrangements, according to the lawsuit.

The four companies, which are represented by the Law Offices of Robert A. Stutman in Fort Washington, already have received a combined 117 in claims, according to the lawsuit. The four insurance companies are: Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co., State Farm, Travco Insurance Co. and USAA Casualty Insurance Co.

This is the third lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Court in connection with the fire that destroyed two occupied Riverwalk apartment buildings and the unoccupied The Stables apartment building that was under construction.

The other two lawsuits seek class action status to represent the tenants of the destroyed apartment buildings.

As in the first two lawsuits, the defendants named in the insurance companies’ lawsuit are: O’Neill Properties Group of King of Prussia, the developer and former owner of the Riverwalk buildings and the developer of the under-construction Stables apartment building; Merion Construction Inc. of Bala Cynwyd and L21 Construction Managers of Leesport, Pa., both of which are listed as construction managers/general contractors for The Stables building; Cavan Construction of Aston, Pa., a subcontractor whose employees are alleged to have accidentally started the fire; and, Bozzuto Corp. of Maryland, who took over management of the Riverwalk complex after O’Neill sold its interest.

The eight-alarm fire, which was ruled accidental, started when smoldering sparks or molten metal generated by an acetylene torch ignited the five-story wooden frame-out of The Stables building. The radiant heat generated by the blaze caused the roofs on the top of the two nearby occupied apartment buildings to catch fire, burning from the top down.

Some 345 people initially were displaced but those in the two unaffected Riverwalk buildings were allowed back Aug. 17. However, the fire that took the efforts of some 300 firefighters to bring under control consumed a combined 180 units in the other two buildings.

The allegations in the insurers’ lawsuit are similar to those raised in the two other lawsuits.

These allegations range from failing to properly supervise workers at the construction site to failing to consider fire protection implications of building a five-story wood-frame construction residential structure to failing to install sprinklers and firewalls in the attic of the Riverwalk buildings.

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