A judge has fined a Montreal suburb $3.7 million after its firefighters made a
warehouse fire worse by accidentally starting a second blaze.
On Sept. 25,
2004, 120 firefighters were called to the Dyne-a-Pak foam plant in Laval, Que.,
after fire broke out in a storage room.
They used a chainsaw to cut a hole in
a ceiling across the hall from where the fire was raging. Sparks from the saw
ignited rolls of polystyrene, causing a second fire.
It took 11 hours to put
out the fire, and the warehouse was heavily damaged.
The company’s insurer
blamed the Laval fire department for the mistake and sued the City of Laval for
$9 million. In a Dec. 13 ruling, Judge Andre Roy agreed the chainsaw caused
the second fire. He ordered Laval to pay $3,675,000 to the Factory Mutual
Insurance Company. The city hasn’t decided if it will appeal.
