YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – More than 20 International Towers residents have filed a lawsuit stemming from the May 2024 Realty Tower explosion that led them to being evacuated from their apartments.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court lists as defendants GreenHeart Companies LLC, one of the owners of Realty Tower; East Ohio Gas Co., doing business as Enbridge Gas Ohio; YO Properties 47 LLC, another owner of Realty; LY Property Management, which managed the building; Dominion Energy LLC; MS Consultants; A. Neider Architecture LLC; and five unidentified individuals. It contends the defendants were negligent and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, as well as court costs and attorney fees.
A May 28, 2024, explosion in the basement of Realty Tower killed one man, injured several people, damaged the building and nearby structures and closed some downtown businesses. International Towers residents were evacuated from the building in June after engineers determined Realty was in danger of collapsing.
The lawsuit, the latest of several filed since the blast, says International Towers was designed to accommodate people who are elderly, have medical conditions or disabilities.
They weren’t allowed to return to their homes for about two months after the evacuation.
As a result of the evacuation, the plaintiffs “were forced to precipitously leave their residences, and in the ensuing days, weeks and months after being displaced from their residences suffered personal effects such as confusion, mental anguish, undue stress, headaches, restlessness, sleeplessness and experienced significant fright, increased anxiety, panic attacks, worry, concern, emotional trauma and depression, and each has suffered other damages and difficulties, including but not limited to the significant disruption of their daily lives and activities and other inconveniences,” the lawsuit says.
The historic Realty Tower, which housed apartments on upper levels and a Chase Bank branch on the ground floor, was razed by its owners after the blast.
Last August, the National Transportation Safety Board found that a cut by a scrap removal crew into an active Enbridge natural gas service line that was incorrectly documented as inactive was the probable cause of the explosion.
The scrap removal crew had been hired by GreenHeart, which was contracted by the city to relocate utility lines.
Pictured at top: Damage is seen to the Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown after an explosion May 28, 2024. International Towers is seen next to the damaged building.