A Multnomah County jury has awarded more than $10 million to two people injured in a 2016 gas explosion in Portland.
The two plaintiffs, who said they suffered physical and emotional injuries in the Northwest Portland blast, were awarded about $6 million in compensation and $4.6 million in punitive damages, to be paid by the pipeline company Loy Clark. The jury ruled last week.
Debris from a gas explosion in Portland blankets the street on October 19, 2016, at Northwest 23rd Avenue and Northwest Glisan Street.
Courtesy of Portland Fire and Rescue
The explosion occurred on Oct. 19, 2016, after Loy Clark pipeline workers ruptured a gas line while excavating for placement of a Comcast box. A historic three-story building at the corner of Northwest 23rd Avenue and Northwest Glisan Street in Portland was blown apart, and an adjoining three-story building that housed the Dosha Salon Spa was gutted.
No one was killed by the blast, but eight people were treated at Portland hospitals for injuries. The injured include three firefighters, two police officers and three civilians. Firefighters were credited with saving lives as they evacuated people from the buildings.
Greg Kafoury, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in a statement that the case illustrates why punitive damages are essential.
“Oregon’s Public [Utility] Commission investigated the defendant and imposed a fine of $1,000, which they then suspended,” Kafoury said. “Many police and firemen were injured, property damage alone was more than $17 million. The jury found that the pipeline company was consciously indifferent to the safety of our community.”
The two plaintiffs, Eric Rader and Kristen Prentice, both testified they have developed post-traumatic stress disorder, and suffered severe inner ear injuries after the explosion. Medical testimony indicated that each will permanently suffer from tinnitus, a severe and constant ringing in the ears, along with hearing loss and painful sensitivity to loud noises.
Rader, an employee of NW Natural, the local gas company, had entered a corner bagel shop shortly before the explosion.
“The reading on his gas meter indicated extreme risk,” Kafoury said. “Rader notified nearby first responders, saving many who might otherwise have been consumed by the inferno.”
Rader was awarded $1.6 million in compensation.
Prentice, a beautician at Dosha, was half a block away at the time of the explosion. She was awarded damages of $4.3 million in compensation.
Jurors who spoke to attorneys for both sides after the verdict agreed that the evidence for punitive damages was “overwhelming.”
