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MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - It’s been nearly four years since a deadly explosion rocked the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
The 2014 New Year’s Day blast at an apartment complex at 510 Cedar Avenue South killed three people. A dozen survivors Thursday filed suit in Hennepin County, claiming the tragedy could have been prevented.
In 2014, Ismail Adan told Fox 9 he was devastated to learn his cousin was among the injured.
“He told me he jumped from the top into the street and he injured his hip,” Adan shared through an interpreter at the time.
Fourteen people were taken to nearby hospitals. Some of the 12 who survive sustained serious injuries and endure long, painful recoveries.
The formal cause of the explosion remains undetermined.
The twelve survivors named in the suit include either victims or their surviving relatives, each now sues both CenterPoint Energy Resources and Wadani Properties, LLC.
Allegations include negligence, fail to warn, design defects and breach of warranty.
The 22-page complaint maintains CenterPoint Energy’s high pressure gas service lines were inside the complex, instead of outside, increasing the chance of a blast.
The suit also alleges Wadani Properties failed to provide working smoke detectors.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Aaron Eken, cites at the time of the explosion, there were several “inoperative gas heating facilities.”
Further, the suit alleges aside from the absence of gas detectors, nobody living inside was adequately warned of gas leak risks.
The suit seeks at least $750,000 in damages.
Fox 9 did reach out to Eken and CenterPoint Energy.
Eken has not yet returned our calls.
Meanwhile, CenterPoint Energy declined any comment, but in the past the company’s representatives told reporters natural gas was not responsible for the blast.
Contact information for Wadani Properties LLC could not be located.