CAPITOLA — A Sacramento-based law firm filed a class action lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Tuesday, on behalf of Capitola Village home and business owners it says have suffered in the aftermath of a Christmas morning apartment explosion last year.
The lawsuit, filed in Santa Cruz County Superior Court by Kershaw Talley Barlow, alleges that the pre-dawn apartment building explosion was caused by a failure in PG&E’s underground infrastructure. According to the filing, the plaintiffs contend that electrical overheating in PG&E’s wiring melted through a gas service line it shared a utility trench with, causing gas to escape for nearly two hours before it found an ignition point and leveled the two-story residential building at 105 Lawn Way.
The Capitola Police Department reported that first responders were called to the residence, not far from the village’s Esplanade, around 5:10 a.m. on Christmas Day after receiving reports of a structure fire and possible gas explosion. Emergency personnel evacuated nearby residents and extinguished the flames later that morning.
“This was an entirely preventable disaster caused by infrastructure that should have been safely maintained and compliant with the law,” said Bill Kershaw, founding partner at Kershaw Talley Barlow, in a media release. “This community deserves answers and improvements to bring non-compliant underground utility lines into compliance with the Public Utility Commissions General Orders and to make sure Capitola Village is safe and that this never happens again.”
According to the firm’s court filing that was shared with the Sentinel, plaintiffs include village residents or homeowners Karin Anderson, Mary Locke and Julie Geraci as well as Anthony Guajardo, owner of Mijo’s Taqueria and chair of the Capitola Village Business Improvement Assessment.
A spokesperson for PG&E told the Sentinel in a statement Wednesday that the utility giant was aware of existing lawsuits related to the village incident and that it had launched a pair of investigations to uncover additional information.
“Safety remains our most important responsibility, and we are confident in the safety of the local gas system. We are currently conducting work in the area to expose and replace some facilities as an additional layer of protection for the community,” the spokesperson wrote. “We also have initiated two investigations to understand what factors contributed to this safety incident — an evaluation conducted by a specialized team within PG&E and an investigation conducted by an independent third-party engineering firm, Exponent.”
The building in which the explosion occurred, the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote, was home to four units and three residents, two of whom were not at home on the day of the blast. The one resident that was in the building, according to the court complaint, suffered a severe concussion, potential traumatic brain injury and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
As for the rest of the residents and business owners in the village, the litigators wrote, many fear another leak and explosion is likely due, in part, to the fact that the village is known to flood during heavy storms and high tides and the saltwater may have contributed to more widespread degradation of utility trenches and equipment corrosion.
In addition to financial remedies, the plaintiffs have also asked that PG&E inspect subsurface gas and electric supply lines within the village area, and that it establish a joint task force with interested stakeholders to help determine placement and construction of underground utility lines throughout Capitola Village.