{"id":97848,"date":"2018-09-21T19:29:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-22T01:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lawyers-discuss-lawsuit-in-response-to-416-fire\/"},"modified":"2018-09-21T19:29:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-22T01:29:39","slug":"lawyers-discuss-lawsuit-in-response-to-416-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lawyers-discuss-lawsuit-in-response-to-416-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers discuss lawsuit in response to 416 Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Lawyers
Lawyers who are suing the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad say they are not looking to put the train out of business. Instead, they are seeking fair compensation for their plaintiffs who suffered damage from the 416 Fire and floods that followed.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lawyers suing the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad said they seek to obtain just compensation for residents who suffered damages as a result of the 416 Fire, not kill La Plata County\u2019s top tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur motives are to hold the train responsible and to hold it responsible going forward, not to put the train out of business,\u201d said Thomas Henderson, a Denver attorney with Burg, Simpson, Eldredge, Hersh and Jardine<\/a>, at a meeting held Tuesday at Durango Arts Center.<\/p>\n

Henderson was joined by Durango attorney Bobby Duthie with Duthie, Savastano, Brungard<\/a> at meetings held Monday and Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Henderson and Duthie said they have not yet served the D&SNG<\/a> with papers for the lawsuit. But Duthie said he expects the train will be served soon.<\/p>\n

Damages to homeowners\u2019 properties mostly came from flood damage from the burn area, but some homeowners had burned trees and other damages resulting from fire on their lands, Henderson said.<\/p>\n

In addition, Henderson said \u201closs of pristine views\u201d might harm property values.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe losses are pretty near and dear,\u201d he said. \u201cThe dream that they had isn\u2019t there anymore, and they can\u2019t resell their property anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

No buildings or homes were lost to the fire, which started June 1 and was declared fully contained July 31.<\/p>\n

\"Harper\"
Harper<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On Wednesday, D&SNG owner Al Harper said before next season he is investing $6 million in fire-mitigation efforts, including purchasing two diesel engines and converting a coal-burning engine to burn oil. He added that he is exploring the possibility of converting two more engines to burn oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak about litigation. I assume there will be one or two lawsuits, but I am willing to listen to anyone with ideas for fire mitigation that are within reason and affordable,\u201d Harper said.<\/p>\n

He added that he has invested more money in the train than it has generated in revenue since he bought it in 1998.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this because we love the train, and we love the community, and we love Durango, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to keep going and why we\u2019re going to hang tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Henderson said several plaintiffs are business owners who lost sales during the 416 Fire, which forced on-and-off closures of U.S. Highway 550.<\/p>\n

Henderson described the civil lawsuit as more of a mass tort litigation than a class-action lawsuit because damages vary widely among plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

Attorneys will use a forensic accountant to help determine losses suffered by businesses during the fire, he said.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for the lawsuit\u2019s filing last week is to force the train to adopt new procedures to minimize fire starts next season, Duthie said.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Forest Service, which is responsible for investigating the cause of the 416 Fire, has not determined what started the blaze. It intends to issue a ruling in late fall or early winter. The office of Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is expected to review the report before it is released.<\/p>\n

While the Forest Service has not listed a cause of the blaze, Henderson said lawyers have enough information a D&SNG train started the fire based on interviews, the environmental conditions at the time and a history of train-ignited fires.<\/p>\n

Henderson also said attorneys have hired their own fire investigators to examine the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n

Kristi Householder, a plaintiff, said she has spent more than $100,000 cleaning and making repairs to her property as a result of floods from the 416 Fire burn scar. She said 23 dump truck loads of debris have been removed from her land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire was two county roads and a state highway away from us. We were not that worried even though we had mandatory evacuations. Then, on July 17, in 20 minutes\u2019 time, our property was changed completely,\u201d she said. \u201cIt truly was a life-changing event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit seeks to cover all damages and losses incurred by the plaintiffs resulting from the 416 Fire, smoke from the fire and subsequent flooding and mudslides.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

416 Fire lawsuit (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investigator, forensic accountant working with law firms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[2838,488,13,1373,4259,199],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-416-fire","tag-civil","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-litigation","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-san-juan-national-forest"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97848"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}