Vidalia couple sues over gas explosion

Concordia Sentinel

A Vidalia couple who lost their home, belongings and animals in a gas explosion at Whitehall Plantation at Vidalia last year and three other parties have filed lawsuits during the past few days.

Gene and Vicky Ridgaway hired Baton Rouge attorney Stephen Babcock of Babcock Law Firm to file suit against two companies in connection with the pipeline explosion near Whitehall Plantation on April 5th of last year.

The four lawsuits were filed in the Concordia Parish Clerk of Court's office. In addition to the Ridgaways' suit, others include:

• Kevin J. Benoit and wife Paulette Benoit of Lafayette are suing Wilco Pipeline and Enbridge Pipelines. The suit claims that Kevin Benoit "sustained burns to portions of his body, namely to his ears," and "thousands of dollars in property damage by the complete loss of his welding tuck and equipment in the subject explosion and fire." The suit was filed March 23.
• Stephen A. Breaux and wife Gayland J. Breaux of Mississippi are suing Enbridge, claiming that Stephen Breaux, an employee of Wilco Pipeline which was contracted by Enbridge for pipeline work, "sustained severe debilitating burns to portions of his body, namely to his right arm and back" in the explosion and subsequently "was required to undergo painful and excruciating burn treatment grafts from other parts of his body to his right arm." This suit was filed March 23.
• Lloyd Thrasher of Evangeline Parish and Anthony Fontenot of St. Landry Parish, and State Farm Fire and Casualty and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, are suing Enbridge, Wilco American Home Assurance and ABC Insurance Company. The vehicles of Thrasher, a 2000 Ford F-150, and Fontenot, a 1997 BMC C1500, were both reportedly parked and unoccupied near the job site along Hwy. 131 in Vidalia and damaged in the explosion. This suit was filed Monday, April 2.

Concerning the Ridgaways' suit, Gene Ridgaway said, "We have tried everything conceivably possible to reach a settlement with the two companies and we have not been able to make any headway for nearly a year." He added that "while we did receive a small interim payment nine months after the explosion, it was for less than one fourth of the value of the items that we lost in the explosion."

Said Vicky Ridgaway: "The anxiety and stress from this event has been significant. We had to live in a hotel for nearly two months and have yet to reach any semblance of the normalcy we had before the explosion."
She added, "We did not want to file suit, as we do not believe in those sorts of things, but with the deadline to sue only a couple of weeks away, they sort of forced our hand.

"We had a lifetime of rare and collectible things that simply can not be replaced, but we do hope we can at least be compensated for them." said Gene Ridgaway.

"I believe that Gene and Vicky Ridgaway are in a dispute that doesn't directly involve them" said attorney Babcock. "At the heart of this is a fight between Enbridge Pipeline Company from Houston, Texas, and Wilco Pipeline Contractors from Rayne, Louisiana. Enbridge hired Wilco to do some work on their pipeline and now Enbridge says Wilco is at fault and Wilco says Enbridge is at fault. I am not exactly sure who is at fault right now, but I am 100 percent certain that it wasn't Gene or Vicky Ridgaway."

Babcock noted that to "add insult to injury is the proof the companies are asking for. When someone sets all of your worldly possessions on fire, along with your records of purchasing those possessions, and then that same someone tells you that might reimburse you for your possessions if you can provide written proof that you owned them despite that proof also going up in smoke, it's an awfully hard hurdle to jump through."
Named as defendants in the suit are Wilco Pipeline Contractors, LLC, American Home Assurance Company, Enbridge Pipeline (MIDLA) L.L.C., and AIG.

The suit notes that two "parallel gas lines run across the Mississippi River that are connected by a collar at a terminal point on Louisiana 131 near plaintiffs' residence (Whitehall Plantation)."

The suit alleges:
"Enbridge was the owner and custodian of a pipeline which is nearly 90 years old and provides natural gas to the Town of Vidalia, Louisiana among others:
"Wilco entered into a written contract with Enbridge to perform refurbishing work on one of Enbridge's underground natural gas pipelines.
"The pipelines at issue herein generally run in twin parallel lines.
"As such, one line may be shut down (the 'cold line') while work is safely performed without interruption in the supply of natural gas through the other (the 'hot line.')
"Upon information and belief, Wilco was contracted by Enbridge to excavate, cut out and replace old dilapidated sections of pipe to either correct or prevent leaks.
"Wilco had been working for several days to replace parts of the pipeline, and the work progressed until it reached the front of 'Whitehall Plantation' on or about the 5th day of April, 2006.
"At, or near, 'Whitehall Plantation' the two parallel lines were connected by a perpendicular pipe sometimes referred to as an 'H.'
"At the pertinent times herein, Wilco had workers on site as contracted for by Enbridge.
"At the pertinent time here, Enbridge had at least one supervisor on site.
"Upon information and belief, Wilco was not made aware of an underground "Dresser Coupling" near the front of 'Whitehall Plantation.'
"Wilco had workers excavate the cold side of the "H" and 'Dresser Coupling' on the hot side of the perpendicular connecting pipeline loosened or shifted.
"Liquid natural gas was able to escape, and the force of the gas on the overhanging electrical power lines caused the lines to move, resulted in an electrical arc, igniting the gas.
"The residence at 'Whitehall Plantation' was leased at all pertinent times herein by plaintiffs.
"When the gas from the pipeline ignited, the home of the plaintiffs and nearly all of plaintiffs' worldly possession and animals were completely annihilated within minutes."

The suit quotes Concordia Fire District No. 2 Nolen Cothren, who led the effort to fight the fire, as saying flames rose 35 to 40 feet in the air, adding, "It's the biggest fire (he had) ever seen."

The Ridgaways, says the suit, lost a "lifetime of rare collectibles, guns, jewelry, tack and equine gear, medical and lab equipment, pocket watches, mounted wildlife, tools, housewives, silver certificates, farm equipment, rare automobile parts, silverware, highly collectable western memorabilia, electronics, photographs, furniture, clothes, rare Indian artifacts, antiques, extremely rare automobiles, and common house items in the fire, including, but not limited to, all of the 970 individual listed items..."

Plaintiffs also lost "inordinate amounts of time in recovering their lost documents, titles, registrations, military records, discharge licenses, certifications, degree replacements, vehicle registrations, titles and records, drilling fluids, licenses, social security records, federal and state taxes, personal files and records, corporate records, stamps, family photographs, family history records, medical records (including Veteran Service and X-rays and cards), military records, badges, awards, two honorable discharges, DD-214s,a and eligibility certifications."

The suit adds: "The plaintiffs have spent, and will have to continue to spend, thousands of dollars on the animals' health safety and welfare that survived the fire."