An Oakland man hired to help direct traffic around a fiber optic cable installation project, which became the scene of an underground natural gas line rupture, explosion and fire in San Francisco earlier this year, is suing three firms linked to the project.
A lawyer for Robert Alarid said the initial gas line rupture in the city's Inner Richmond neighborhood in February knocked him to the ground and sent dirt and cement flying into the air, hitting him in the face and body.
Alarid's lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday against the job's main contractor, Florida-based MasTec, and two subcontractors, New Jersey-based Advanced Fiber Works and Kilford Engineering, a construction company based in San Francisco.
The Feb. 6 explosion at Parker Avenue and Geary Boulevard led to a three-alarm fire that burned for hours while PG&E crews excavated the street nearby to shut off the flow of gas.
Fire investigators said the blaze caused more than $10 million in damage to residential and commercial buildings, the street and several parked cars.
Despite the severity, the accident did not cause any fatalities. But Alarid's San Mateo-based lawyer, Ara Jabagchourian, said his client suffered physical injuries and has suffered mental trauma from the fire for months.
"He keeps reliving the events," Jabagchourian said Wednesday. "The city of San Francisco dodged a major bullet in this one. It could have been a lot worse."
The lawsuit, which claims the companies were negligent and workers at the scene violated state regulations, seeks compensatory and general damages.
The legal action comes several weeks after California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) issued three citations against Kilford Engineering for committing a series of safety infractions before one of its employees dug into the underground line.
The National Transportation Safety Board, California Public Utilities Commission and San Francisco Fire Department also investigated the accident.
