PITTSBURGH - Peoples Natural Gas Company LLC was sued by the owners of a Verona dry cleaning service after a natural gas leak destroyed the shopping center the business was in.
According to documents filed in March in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, plaintiffs Lee and Michelle Levine own Cefola Dry Cleaners LLC, a generational business that had been in the Church Hill Shopping Center since it was founded shortly after WWII.
The lawsuit says that the defendant, which provided natural gas to the center and was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of all applicable pipes, valves and other gas equipment, ignored repeated concerns voiced about a natural gas odor in the center.
On July 28, 2019, a natural gas leak caused a fire in the meter room, the suit says. The fire department could not contain the fire due to the ongoing leak continuing to fuel the blaze, and the plaintiffs say that when Peoples Natural Gas Company arrived they did not even know where their own access cap for the main valve was.
The entire Church Hill Shopping Center was destroyed, and the gas leak caused an explosion that injured many firefighters, the suit says.
Despite the Peoples Gas CEO stating to several news outlets that the company would "make it right," the plaintiffs say that no attempt at restitution has been made, and wrongfully cleared the gas equipment from the site that was valuable evidence for the fire.
Peoples Gas is charged with negligence and nuisance. The Levines are represented by Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard and Smith LLP of Pittsburgh and White and Williams LLP of Philadelphia.