BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
EATONTOWN –– An attorney representing the Long Branch construction firm whose workers were digging a trench behind the now-demolished Petco store right before a gas explosion leveled the building on March 4 has called one of his client’s employees “a hero.”
Robert Zoller’s client, J.F. Kiely Construction, is named as a defendant in a personal injury lawsuit filed in state Superior Court, Freehold, on March 18 by Petco employee Nicholas Yacalis.
Zoller said this week he believes that construction worker Marcus Gordon, who warned those inside the doomed pet store to evacuate the building just minutes before the blast, helped save the lives of many, including the complainant.
Gordon was subsequently injured when he was trapped in the building’s rubble after the roof and first floor collapsed following the blast. He remains hospitalized in fair condition at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune as of Tuesday, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
The official criminal investigation carried out by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office shows that all of the Kiely workers on the scene assisted in evacuating the store as soon as a company-owned backhoe struck a gas line which in turn triggered the explosion, Zoller said.
“We feel based on that evidence that [Kiely employees] acted in a heroic manner,” Zoller said.
Gordon, 37, of Oceanport, and Yacalis, 19, of Wall, were two of the five persons who sustained injuries as a result of being trapped in the rubble of the destroyed store.
Zoller stated late last week that he has yet to be served with notification of a lawsuit filed by Yacalis’ attorney, Norman Hobbie, of the Eatontown-based law firm of Hobbie, Corrigan, Bertuccio and Tashjy.
In defending his client, Zoller indicated that he will reference the county Prosecutor’s official criminal investigation report which shows that the explosion and resulting building collapse have been ruled “accidental in nature.”
No evidence of criminal wrongdoing was found by the Prosecutor’s Office, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Robert Honecker, Zoller said.
With the county’s criminal investigation closed as of March 15, the Prosecutor’s Office turned over the investigation into the Petco matter to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), Honecker has said.
Kiely employees acted quickly to prevent a tragedy that could have resulted when the company’s backhoe severed the gas line, which the prosecutor’s investigation has shown was unmarked at the time excavation began, Zoller said.
Atlanta-based Utiliquest was responsible for marking utility lines, which are owned by New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) outside the building prior to the excavating, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Both Utiliquest and NJNG are also named as defendants in Yacalis’ suit.
“We feel based on the investigation that we have conducted thus far that the Kiely crew acted in a very appropriate, if not heroic, manner once the line had been struck,” Zoller said.
“[The gas line] had not been identified as all of the reports have indicated; [the Kiely workers] acted expediently and appropriately to resolve it,” he added.
While NJNG has also not been served with a copy of the lawsuit, company representatives are standing behind the action they took on the day of the explosion, according to company spokeswoman Roseanne Koberle.
NJNG workers arrived on the scene at approximately 11:31 a.m. on the day of the Petco explosion and by noon, had turned off gas flow to the collapsed building and several other businesses nearby, Koberle said.
In fact, company representatives rushed to and arrived on the scene of the accident within 15 minutes of being notified about the blast at 11:14 a.m. on that Friday, she pointed out.
All gas service was restored as of the next afternoon, Koberle added.
The gas lines buried below the asphalt parking lot behind Petco, including the 3/4-inch steel surface line that was struck, had been duly noted in NJNG records, Koberle explained.
The utility company is reserving any comment on the lawsuit for now and is also awaiting the findings of the ongoing BPU investigation, she said
A Utiliquest employee at Atlanta headquarters referred inquiries to north New Jersey attorney Edward DePascale, who could not be reached at press time.
According to Hobbie, Yacalis remains bedridden at home with multiple fractures of the spine and a fractured ankle.
Other named defendants in the suit, charging negligence by all parties as well as failure to properly inspect, maintain, and supervise work on the premises and failure to provide a safe and secure working environment, are LGR Associates of Huntington Station, N.Y., the company that owned the building that housed the pet store, and J. Patock Construction of Tinton Falls.
The latter firm was the general contractor for the construction of additional lighting and signage behind the building that had been requested by the San Diego-based Petco, according to Honecker.
Patock, in turn, subcontracted the excavating work to Kiely, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Spokesmen for Patock and LGR have stated that they have not yet seen the Yacalis’ suit, which Hobbie said last week should be served “within two weeks” from the time it was filed.
Yacalis is suing all of the defendants for both emotional and physical pain and suffering, loss of income, and loss of enjoyment of life, Hobbie has said. He has also filed for worker’s compensation from Petco.
In addition, Hobbie has stated that Yacalis, who was trapped when his foot was lodged in the rubble just after the building collapsed, promptly evacuated customers and animals once he smelled natural gas coming into the store just prior to the explosion.
Besides Gordon, Petco visiting manager Jennifer Rohan, 34, of Dumont, who was also injured in the blast, is hospitalized in fair condition at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, according to a hospital spokeswoman.