YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – An employee at a business across the street from the site of a May 2024 gas explosion downtown is seeking damages.
Rosa Baker-Shaw of Youngstown, who was an employee at Huntington Bank, across the street from the Realty Tower where the explosion occurred, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The complaint says that as a result of the explosion, Baker-Shaw “sustained serious traumatic injuries to her back, requiring medical treatment, and therapy, for which she has incurred significant expenses …”
It lists as defendants YO Properties 47 LLC, which owned the building; LY Property Management LLC, which managed it; Greenheart Companies LLC; the East Ohio Gas Co.; Enbridge Alternative Fuel LLC; CT Corp. System, Enbridge (U.S.) Gas Distribution LLC; Enbridge EOG Holdings II Corp.; Enbridge EOG Holdings LLC; Enbridge Genoa U.S Holdings LLC; Enbridge (U.S.) Inc.; and Enbridge Pipelines (Toledo) Inc.
It’s the latest of several lawsuits filed related to the May 28, 2024, explosion at the historic downtown building. One person died, several were injured and Realty Tower residents were displaced. Residents of the International Towers, next to Realty, were temporarily relocated after the explosion due to concerns the Realty building could collapse. Realty was razed last summer.
A crew from GreenHeart that was contracted by the city was removing utility lines from the basement and vault area in front of Realty Tower. One of the workers cut a gas service pipeline that had been abandoned. Although the crew believed the line was dead, or not transporting natural gas, when the line was cut, “natural gas began to blow forcefully from the cut pipe,” the lawsuit says.
The GreenHeart crew called 911 and pulled the building’s fire alarm. The explosion occurred about six minutes after the line was cut.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the explosion.
Pictured at top: Damage to the Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown is seen May 31, 2024.