“When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated. The whole top blew off. I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out.”
John Jenkins
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company.
John Jenkins, 53, and his wife, Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pa., filed the lawsuit this week in county circuit court, accusing Chisler Inc. and Eastern Associated Coal Corp. of negligence.
The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages.
The lawsuit says Jenkins' face, neck, arms, torso and legs were severely burned last July after the cigarette ignited methane gas leaking from a pipe underneath the toilet unit.
“When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated. The whole top blew off,” said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. “I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out.”
Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak.
A call to the Charleston office of Peabody Energy, the parent company of Eastern Associated Coal, was not returned.
A man who answered the phone at Chisler's office in Fairview said the company would have no comment.
Associated Press
<!-- end body-content -->
John Jenkins
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company.
John Jenkins, 53, and his wife, Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pa., filed the lawsuit this week in county circuit court, accusing Chisler Inc. and Eastern Associated Coal Corp. of negligence.
The lawsuit seeks $10 million in damages.
The lawsuit says Jenkins' face, neck, arms, torso and legs were severely burned last July after the cigarette ignited methane gas leaking from a pipe underneath the toilet unit.
“When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated. The whole top blew off,” said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. “I can't tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out.”
Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak.
A call to the Charleston office of Peabody Energy, the parent company of Eastern Associated Coal, was not returned.
A man who answered the phone at Chisler's office in Fairview said the company would have no comment.
Associated Press
<!-- end body-content -->
