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Elderly woman sues Santa Maria, SoCal Gas over home explosion

October 10, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

A 90-year-old woman who suffered severe injuries as a result of an explosion inside a Santa Maria home last year has sued the northern Santa Barbara County city and Southern California Gas Company. [KCOY]

On the afternoon of Aug. 23, 2023, an open natural gas outlet in a kitchen caused a home at 1219 Jackie Lane to explode, according to the city of Santa Maria. The explosion destroyed the house at 1219 Jackie Lane and damaged more than 20 nearby homes, eight of which were red-tagged.

Four individuals, including an 83-year-old woman who was inside the house that exploded, were extricated from homes and received medical treatment. Officials determined 24 homes, including the destroyed one, sustained damage.

Gloria Scozzari, 90, who lived next door to the house that exploded, suffered critical injuries.  

On Monday, Scozzari’s attorneys filed a lawsuit naming the City of Santa Maria, Southern California Gas Company, the owner of the property where the explosion occurred and Aclara Technologies LLC, the manufacturer of the property’s smart meter. There are also 50 unnamed defendants in the civil case.

The lawsuit alleges negligence due to a gas line having been improperly secured after a stove fire that ignited about three weeks prior to the explosion. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and moved the stove outside, but failed to close the natural gas supply line, eventually leading to the explosion, the suit states.

 


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If this is exactly how this went down, a previous fire, 3 weeks earlier, that firemen disconnected a stove involved in the earlier fire, and left the gas line just disconnected to the open atmosphere, and the gas was still on? Nobody could smell the gas leaking or building up? The gas company didn’t roll through and red tag or shut the residence’s service down completely, this is real bad. Really bad. I would have assumed there were some serious safeguards in place. Post fire inspection prior to letting anyone turn the gas back on, maybe? Heads will probably roll on this one, and it’s going to cost a whole bunch of money, unless the city, the gas company, the fire fighters that unhooked that stove, are just planning on the 83 year old and 90 year old timing out (dying), which would not surprise me , lawyers being lawyers and all (but they still get paid).


1

This is interesting the smart meter must have turned the gas back on, not so smart.


3

The local crew in Los Osos always leaves me incredibly unimpressed so… I wouldn’t be surprised if there was genuine negligence involved. Seems many of todays firefighters are living off the reputation of firefighters in the days past.


10

Yes, someone made a serious mistake, certainly there was no malice.


2