Dozens join lawsuit over destructive 2016 fire at former Bethlehem Steel site

Jan. 25—Nearly three dozen people who lived near the former Bethlehem Steel factory have joined in a lawsuit seeking damages for the disruption the massive fire there in 2016 caused to their lives.

The fire raged for four days, darkening the skies over Lackawanna and Blasdell, depositing soot everywhere and, some of the people allege, causing severe respiratory and health problems when the residents were able to return to their homes.

The lead plaintiff, Ashley Torres, said her newborn, Penelope, coughed and choked as the family initially retrieved belongings from their home at 102 Pine St. in Blasdell, and another child later died of brain cancer in 2019.

While the lawsuit does not specifically claim young Amelia Torres died as a result of the fire, it alleges the fire unleashed the environmental threats that caused the death of Torres' mother, Earlene Wozniak. She had lived with her daughter and, the court papers say, died of throat cancer in 2019.

By the time Torres was able to relocate to the Town of Collins, 102 Pine St. had lost about $30,000 in value, the lawsuit says.

The complaint lists a range of damages homeowners reported to the lawyer handling the case, Jeanne M. Vinal, who also is an Erie County legislator. Some of their losses involved property damage that was never covered by insurance.

The lawsuit is filed against Great Lakes Industrial Development LLC, which had bought the Bethlehem Steel building years earlier, and Great Lakes' tenant, Industrial Materials Recycling LLC. The suit chiefly blames the two entities, which operate out of the same office on Seneca Street, for not having a fire suppression system in place.

A sprinkler system, however, was not required because Great Lakes had made no changes to the building, Lackawanna Fire Commissioner Ralph Galanti told The Buffalo News in 2016. The building where the fire originated had passed inspection in 2014. The inspection, which was good for three years, noted that the building had fire extinguishers, and fire hydrants around the site were working.

Still, Vinal said she is seeking a finding of gross negligence because Great Lakes did not install a fire suppression system.

"I don't think that it would have cost them that much to do it, and they chose not to do it," she said.

A spokesman for Great Lakes said the company would not comment on the latest lawsuit related to the fire. In court documents filed for another of the cases, Great Lakes called itself a victim of the blaze that, it said, began when an overhead bulb blew and ignited pieces of plastic below. Calls placed to Industrial Materials Recycling and a lawyer for the firm were not returned.

In 2016, Great Lakes told the state Health Department and the Department of Environmental Conservation that it would help affected residents with cleanup costs and would help analyze the soot and ash that belched from the inferno.

The fire roared for the better part of four days, straining fire departments in Lackawanna and surrounding communities, including Buffalo. Route 5 was closed and Lackawanna declared a state of emergency. Under darkened skies, residents in the surrounding area either sought shelter elsewhere or hoped for the best.

Among those affected were Michael and Dina Bardley of Blasdell and Clarence Yeager of the Bethlehem Park neighborhood.

Yeager, the legal papers say, discovered that the fire had melted the siding and roof on his home, ruined his couch and chairs, and left soot caked on the interior and exterior walls. His dog became sick, and his grass never grows green, indicating the soil is damaged, the papers say.

With Dina Bardley claiming injuries to her heart, lungs and thyroid, among other damages, the Bardsleys were Vinal's first clients in the matter, and she tried to create a class-action lawsuit that could bring in other plaintiffs in an area that contains some 3,500 housing units.

The attempt to establish a class-action case was rejected for technical reasons. So Vinal assembled the second case with 33 plaintiffs. She said she intends to appeal for class-action status so that people with any size of a claim can join the case.

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