Family of firefighter who died settles lawsuit

Dec. 02--KINGSTON -- The insurance company for the owner of the home where volunteer firefighter Jack Rose suffered fatal injuries in a December 2015 fire has agreed to pay Rose's parents $400,000.

Kingston lawyer Joe O'Connor said Wednesday that the lawyer for New York Central Mutual made the offer to settle this week. Paul Hurley, of Boggeman, George and Corde, confirmed the offer Friday, noting that it was for the full amount of the policy.

O'Connor, who is with Mainetti, Mainetti & O'Connor, said Friday that Rose's parents, Gary and Linda Rose of Saugerties, will accept the offer. It is likely Surrogate Court Judge Sara McGinty will accept the settlement, O'Connor said.

The parents filed suit against Mary Alice Mark, the owner and an occupant of 11 Fel Qui Road in the Town of Saugerties, in September 2016.

Jack Rose, who was 19, was among the firefighters who responded to a fire at that house on Dec. 19, 2015. A lieutenant with the Mount Marion Fire Department, Rose went into the basement of the burning building with a hose team and got separated. When other firefighters found him, he was injured, and, despite efforts to revive him, he died later at the Broadway campus of Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley in Kingston.

It was later determined that Rose had inhaled superheated gases.

Several intensive investigations pinpointed a wood-burning stove as the source of the fatal blaze. The lawsuit said the homeowner had installed the stove in violation of code requirements and had never obtained a building permit or a certificate of occupancy after the installation of the stove, O'Connor said.

State Department of Labor investigators found that the Mount Marion Fire Department and the Centerville Fire Department, which was in command at the scene of the fire, broke a total of 14 regulations.

Those violations included two key points:

n Rose had taken an air tank unit off a Centerville Fire Department truck instead of using his own tank, investigators determined. The Centerville air tank was a different brand and size from his own and he had not been trained in its use, a violation of safety regulations, state investigators ruled.

n Firefighters who battled flames with Rose in the basement of the house failed to notice when he disappeared. Firefighters monitoring from outside lost contact with Rose as well.

The local fire departments were ordered to correct their deficiencies or face fines. A Department of Labor spokesman said in an email Friday that the two fire departments had completed the required actions.

pbrooks@th-record.com

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