By Margaret Gibbons – Pottstown Mercury

NORRISTOWN – Alleging the inferno at a Conshohocken apartment complex could have been prevented, a Philadelphia law firm filed a civil lawsuit Monday claiming negligence by the developer, construction managers, contractors and complex management.

The lawsuit, filed in Montgomery County Court and naming five specific plaintiffs, is seeking class action status to represent the hundreds of residents at the Riverwalk at Millennium complex who sustained damages in the eight-alarm fire.

Last Wednesday’s fire, which required the efforts of more than 300 firefighters to bring under control, destroyed two occupied apartment buildings and one apartment building under construction. The blaze, which was ruled accidental, broke out in the five-story wood frame building under construction and then quickly spread to the two occupied buildings.

Some 345 people initially were displaced but those in two unaffected buildings were allowed back on Sunday. However, the fire consumed a combined 180 units in two other buildings, according to officials.

“It is clear that neither the project under construction nor the Riverwalk complex that was occupied were built to avoid a foreseeable catastrophic fire,” said Larry Bendesky, a partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett & Bendesky and co-counsel in the litigation with lead counsel Robert J. Mongeluzzi.

“As we have observed in similar disasters, this represents a complete failure to prevent an easily preventable calamity,” said Bendesky.

Named as defendants in the litigation are: O’Neill Properties Group of Upper Merion, the developer and former owner of the Riverwalk buildings and the developer of the under-construction Stables apartment building; Merion Construction Inc., listed at the same Upper Merion address, and L21 Construction Managers of Leesport, both of which are listed as construction managers/general contractors for The Stables building; Cavan Construction of Aston, 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 lawsuit contains numerous allegations against multiple and individual defendants.

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 and failing to inform residents of this lack.

Many of these allegations will be fleshed out during the litigation, according to Mongeluzzi.

“We have assembled a team that includes leading construction and fire prevention system engineers and we will get to the bottom of this and obtain justice for the victims,” said Mongeluzzi.

One area on which this team will focus is the relationship between O’Neill Properties and Merion Construction, according to Mongeluzzi.

“It is the role of the general contractor to act independently to ensure the safety of the construction site,” said Mongeluzzi. “However, in this case, Merion is a wholly owned subsidiary of O’Neill Properties.”

“Unfortunately, in all these types of tragedies that occur, there always seems to be a place for the plaintiffs’ lawyers,” said O’Neill Properties Chairman Brian O’Neill when asked about the lawsuit. “Our attorneys will be responding to the lawsuit and, other than that, I have no comment.”

“This looks to be just a freak accident,” said O’Neill, adding that his company already has put together its own team of outside experts to review the incident.

Questioned about the use of wood framing, O’Neill responded that 95 percent of all residential buildings have wood framing.

Sever years ago, the building industry was looking into using chemically treated and pressure treated wood for fire safety. However, after believing it had found the solution, the industry subsequently learned that the treated wood was found to have carcinogens that released into the air in completed dwellings, according to O’Neill. Since that time, treated wood has been banned for construction.

O’Neill defended his buildings.

“Buildings are designed to get people out safely and that is what happened here,” said O’Neill.

Both O’Neill and Conshohocken Council President Sandra Caterbone maintained that all of the buildings in question were built in accordance with the borough’s building and fire codes.

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