FIRESTONE, Colo. — A lawsuit has been filed against Anadarko Petroleum, Noble Energy, Hearth at Oak Meadows and another company after the deadly home explosion and fire in Firestone last month.
The lawsuit was filed by Denver-based Boesen Law Firm. The explosion and fire on April 17 killed two men and left one woman with critical injuries.
The explosion was caused by gas that entered the home through a cut, abandoned flow line from a well, investigators said.
Anadarko Petroleum, which owned the well near the Firestone home, closed 3,000 vertical wells in northeastern Colorado as a result of the explosion.
Great Western Oil and Gas also shut down some of its wells as a precaution.
Gov. John Hickenlooper called for a statewide review of oil and gas operations. Energy companies are inspecting pipelines that are attached to the more than 54,000 active oil and gas wells in the state.
Several lawyers descended on Colorado, planning to take Anadarko Petroleum, Noble Energy, homebuilders and developers to task.
Richard Capshaw, an attorney with Dallas-based Capshaw and Associates, and Jason Webster of Houston-based Webster Law Firm said they were assisting with potential lawsuits.
“The main damage folks in Firestone are going to have is the effect on their property values. Folks are not going to want to live next to an oil well or in an area where their house could explode,” Webster said.
“The majority of these folks are scared and I don’t blame them. They want to know if this could happen again. They want to know if its a systematic problem.”
Boesen Law Firm is not pursuing a class-action lawsuit, but Capshaw said “more than 10” people planned to file individual suits.
