Marina explosion lawsuits settled

Jan. 02--Twenty lawsuits later, the dust has finally settled from an explosion and fire at North Shore Marina nearly four years ago.

"We're happy to be done with it," Marina Manager Jill Kinkema said last week. "We got to the point where we wanted to put that behind us."

Grand Rapids resident Michael Rosencrance was injured on March 23, 2013, when he ignited a torch while he was working on his boat, touching off an explosion and fire at the marina.

Rosencrance suffered "serious burns," but has recovered, according to now-retired Ottawa County Circuit Judge Ed Post, who handled the lawsuits.

Nobody else was injured, but several boats were damaged or destroyed in the Saturday morning fire at North Shore Marina, 18275 Berwyck St. Several fire departments responded to the scene, where billowing smoke was clearly visible to those on the south side of the Grand River.

Once the fire scene was cleared, insurance companies paid off their claims and began to file lawsuits. Post combined the lawsuits into one case.

"Slowly and surely, we resolved them," he said.

Post said all of the money available, including Rosencrance's $1.1 million insurance policy, was thrown into a pot and divided among the insurance companies representing the boat owners.

What was left was given to the marina, Kinkema said. Rosencrance also contributed additional funds, as part of the agreement, which was paid directly to the marina, she said.

"Our business loss actually far exceeded what we settled on," Kinkema said.

The fire-damaged boat storage building was reconstructed at a cost of about $675,000. That work was completed in September 2013.

By the end of 2014, cleanup and repair work on the boats was almost done. The last three boats were in the service building at that time.

What happened

Despite policies already in place, Rosencrance used a propane torch to heat plastic tubing around speaker wire while working on his boat, Post said.

"Had we known he had a propane torch with him, we never would have let him in," Kinkema said.

The torch ignited gasoline fumes in the area, causing the explosion.

Post said, "the 'who done it' was known." The main questions were: Where did the fumes come from? And should Rosencrance have known the fumes were there?

There was a battle of the experts on how full gas tanks should be while boats are in storage to avoid corrosion and pitting. The pitting creates a pinhole where gas fumes could escape.

"It was a scientific puzzle to try to put together," the judge said.

Kinkema said the marina has always had a policy requiring boat owners to sign in at the office when they were going into the buildings.

"There is a list of rules they have to read," she explained. "They have to let us know what they are doing."

These regulations have always been in place, Kinkema said. Marina officials are now a lot stricter about making sure they are followed.

Kinkema said the lawsuits were costly and time-consuming for the company, but time and an improving economy helped the business recover.

Marina owner Chris Lisowicz predicted it would take 3-5 years to recover from it, Kinkema said. "It was pretty much three years."

The marina manager said the incident was hard on everyone.

"It was just an unfortunate situation," Kinkema said. "Nobody wins."

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