Lawsuit says Bucks County nursing home explosion was ‘preventable’

Two people were killed, 20 others injured, and more than 100 residents and employees displaced in the Dec. 23 blast that left the two-story building partially collapsed and uninhabitable.

What’s believed to be the first lawsuit in the fatal explosion at a Bristol Township nursing home has been filed, alleging that PECO and the home’s operator failed to evacuate and fix a suspected gas leak. 

Members of a Philadelphia law firm filed the lawsuit Jan. 5 in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court on behalf of three former workers and a resident of the 174-bed Tower Road nursing home alleging “overwhelming negligence.” 

At least four more law firms have indicated that they are representing former employees and residents of the nursing home.

Two people were killed, 20 others injured, and more than 100 residents and employees displaced in the Dec. 23 blast that left the two-story building partially collapsed and uninhabitable.

National Transportation Safety Board officials are investigating the accident, though local fire officials have speculated that a gas leak in the basement was responsible. 

The lawsuit alleges that former health care aides Stacy Ballard of Bensalem, Davidetta Blay of Bristol Township, and Oreland resident James Broderick, an independent telecom contractor, were inside the building when it exploded and partially collapsed. 

Middletown resident Barbara Sall, a paraplegic, was also critically injured and lost her motorized wheelchair, according to the lawsuit filed by Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky PC.

Ballard and Blay were eating lunch in the break room when the floor beneath them caved in, and Broderick was walking on the first floor, attorney Aidan Carickhoff said.  Sall was also eating in the building dining room when she was struck with glass, metal and a wheelchair when windows in the room exploded, according to the lawsuit.

All four suffered “catastrophic” injuries, according to the lawsuit. His clients suffered fractures and head trauma, underwent surgeries, and at least one is still hospitalized two weeks later, as well as sustained psychological injuries, Carickhoff said.

The lawsuit names PECO, Exelon Corp., Bristol Health & Rehab Center and its management consultant Saber Healthcare Group as defendants.  The suit was filed in Philadelphia because the lead defendant, PECO, is headquartered there, Carickhoff said. 

The nursing home and rehab was formally known as Silver Lake Nursing Home. 

A PECO spokeswoman declined comment on Jan. 5 citing the ongoing NTSB investigation. Saber Healthcare Group did no immediately respond to an email, but previously Chief of Government Affairs Zachary Shamberg said the company notified PECO as soon as a gas smell was detected and its staff followed protocol.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were aware that a gas leak in the building’s boiler room, which is serviced by PECO natural gas, had been “festering for days,” but didn’t take necessary steps to evacuate and fix the leak.  

Among the allegations in the lawsuit is that Bristol Health  & Rehab Center — whose new owners took over Dec. 1 — should have been equipped with necessary safety devices to detect a potential natural gas leak, including natural gas detectors. 

State Department of Health inspection records show the center long struggled to meet the state standards for licensed skilled long-term care providers under its previous ownership CommuniCare Health Services.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported 200 complaints in the past three years at the facility that resulted in a violation and four times a resident was either harmed, or in danger of being harmed. Last year the federal government fined the operators more than $400,000.

As recently as late October, under the previous ownership, the former Silver Lake Nursing and Rehab Center in Bristol Township was found as noncompliant in multiple areas during a routine state health inspection.

Since becoming affiliated with Bristol Health & Rehab Center this month, Saber has been working with the state to correct “longstanding  issues” within the facility, Shamberg previously said. 

PECO responded to a complaint about a potential gas leak Dec. 23, and residents and workers have alleged that the odor of gas became “overwhelmingly pungent” at least 30 minutes before the explosion. 

But, according to the lawsuit, the nursing home administration took no steps to begin evacuating residents, and told employees and contractors, including the plaintiffs, to continue working despite the gas odor. 

Days after the explosion Bristol Township fire officials confirmed there were no records of 911 calls for any issues, including gas, at the nursing home before the explosion.

The  lawsuit also alleges that PECO “utterly failed to adequately identify the source of its leak,” and failed to repair it and initiate an evacuation, according to the lawsuit.  

On its website PECO guidelines call for the immediate evacuation of a building for gas odor and warn against operating any electrical devices, including cellphones.

Robert J. Mongeluzzi, firm president and lead trial attorney in the litigation, alleged that their pre-suit investigation left “no doubt” that the defendants were responsible for the “foreseeable and preventable tragedy.” 

“We will prove that there were failures in staffing, training and supervision, that basic facility life safety training protocols were blatantly ignored or compromised,” Mongeluzzi said. “That the site was not immediately evacuated after several reports of noxious onsite gas-leak odors long before the explosion, and that innocent lives — of residents, workers, and visitors including contractors — were callously put at risk.”

How PECO and the nursing home operators responded to the gas leak reports are among the critical elements in determining liability, said attorney Ryan Will, of the law firm Morgan and Morgan, which is presenting at least a half-dozen employees and residents.

People will typically act quickly to fix a gas leak but the workers don’t think about how much gas has escaped and accumulated creating a potential hazardous situation, if not properly ventilated, said Will, who is leading the firm’s investigation into the explosion. 

A thorough review will also be necessary of the nursing home’s emergency response plan, including its evacuation protocols, and drill training documentation, Will said. 

“The plans I’ve seen in care facilities post-fire and explosion, they fall far short of being desirable,” he added.