OWLS HEAD, Maine — The town’s attorney argues the municipality should be ruled immune from a $400,000 lawsuit filed against it by the owner of a commercial garage destroyed by fire.
Attorney Edward Benjamin filed a motion earlier this month in Knox County Unified Court in Rockland asking for a summary judgment in favor of the town, the fire department and Fire Chief Frank Ross.
Benjamin argues there are no factual disputes in the case and that Maine law sides with the town on what facts there are.
The decisions made by the fire chief as he responded to the fire fall under discretionary immunity that government employees have as regularly ruled by the courts, according to the town’s filing.
Cecil A. Fogg and his company, Cecil A. Fogg Inc., owner of Frankie’s Garage, filed a civil lawsuit in February 2015 over a Feb. 10, 2013, fire that destroyed Frankie’s Garage on Route 73. Fogg since has built a new garage on the site.
He is seeking more than $400,000 in damages for the fire that began in an oil waste furnace and which he says destroyed equipment and classic cars and motorcycles.
Fogg’s suit claims Ross arrived and went inside the building without his firefighting gear to look at the fire and that, when he left, Ross left the door open, which allowed the fire to spread faster. The chief also did not have the proper equipment to hook up hoses to the nearest fire hydrant, and he refused to use spray foam or set up a dunk tank to battle the blaze, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also states the fire chief and Fogg were involved in a car crash in 1996 and that, unbeknownst to Fogg, Ross has held a grudge over that crash. In the lawsuit, Fogg claims Ross said to him as the fire destroyed the garage that this was “for the accident.”
The town and Ross have denied the claims made by Fogg.
In this month’s filing for the town, Benjamin pointed out that neighboring Rockland firefighters arrived on the scene and entered the building and for eight minutes tried to contain the fire. The Rockland firefighters were ordered out of the building by their chief when flames burst through the roof and there was concern about a collapse of the building, Benjamin stated.
No one was trapped in the building, so the decision was made not to put the life of emergency personnel at risk by going back inside the structure, the attorney stated.
A hearing has yet to be scheduled on the motion.