Smoke from a fire at a building in downtown Scranton nearly a year ago caused $3 million in damages to nearby Penn Furniture, according to an insurance lawsuit seeking to recoup that amount.
The fire at 115 Franklin Ave. on May 18 produced smoke that infiltrated Penn Furniture, parts of which are situated across the Center Street alley from 115 Franklin Ave., the lawsuit says.
With an address of 97-99 Lackawanna Ave., Penn Furniture extends to Center Street, and then also extends along the length of that alley from Mifflin to Franklin avenues.
At the time of the fire, the building at 115 Franklin Ave. also extended along the length of Center Street from Mifflin to Franklin avenues. The fire there was in a portion of the structure around the middle of the alley. That fire-damaged section was later demolished.
The insurer for Penn Furniture, Erie Insurance Exchange of Erie, filed a subrogation lawsuit April 15 in Lackawanna County Court against a contractor and welder who were doing work at 115 Franklin Ave. prior to the fire.
In a subrogation lawsuit, one party, often an insurer, seeks to recover damages it paid out to another party by suing those believed to have been at fault.
Erie Insurance Exchange names as defendants JTA Masonry LLC of Pittston and Endless Mountains Mobile Welding LLC of Thompson, and as-yet-unknown persons or corporations.
Efforts by The Times-Tribune to reach JTA Masonry and Endless Mountains Mobile Welding were unsuccessful.
According to the lawsuit:
• Precision Construction of NEPA, which is not named as a defendant, hired JTA Masonry to do work related to a renovation at 115 Franklin Ave.; and JTA subcontracted out welding work to Endless Mountains Mobile Welding.
• Workers of either defendant or both of them involved with welding a steel plate above a window allowed a torch or hot slag or other material to contact combustible insulation material inside the building, which ignited the fire.
• Smoke from the fire infiltrated Penn Furniture across the alley, causing severe smoke damage to the furniture building and its inventory.
• “Defendants failed to identify and immediately extinguish the fire and failed to maintain a proper fire watch or a sufficient number of employees that were ready, willing and able to extinguish or control the fire.”
• Erie Insurance Exchange paid Penn Furniture $3,142,830 for smoke damage and seeks to recover that amount in civil damages, as well as unspecified costs, fees and interest.
The four-count lawsuit includes one count of negligence against each of JTA Masonry, Endless Mountains Mobile Welding and the unknown persons/corporations, and one count of negligent hiring against JTA Masonry. The suit claims they failed to ensure that sparks, melted metal or slag did not ignite combustible materials in the building.
The building at 115 Franklin Ave. was the former Pasqualichio Brothers meat distribution structure, and comprised an original structure and additions when developer John Basalyga bought it in 2021.
At the time of the fire, Basalyga was planning to convert the structure into apartments and expand some interior space of a law-firm tenant.
“My company hired a contractor to do work to expand the lawyers’ office and unfortunately it (the fire) happened,” Basalyga said in a phone interview Thursday.
Basalyga or his firm are also not named as defendants in the Erie Insurance Exchange lawsuit.
The front and back portions of 115 Franklin Ave. had smoke and water damage from the fire but remained structurally sound and self-contained and did not need to be demolished, Basalyga said. He hopes to have renovations of the portion fronting on Franklin Avenue completed by late June and to have the law firm return there.
The part of the structure fronting on Mifflin Avenue will be redeveloped, Basalyga said. The now-vacant middle portion of the property, which was demolished and removed, will become parking for tenants, he said.
A fire at 115 Franklin Ave. in Scranton on May 18, 2024. (COURTESY OF COLIN GILDEA / NEPA FIRE PHOTOGRAPHY)
115 Frankling Avenue in Scranton Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The rear of a building on Mifflin Avenue Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The rear of 115 Franklin Avenue in Scranton Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Jim LockwoodThe fire-damaged building at 115 Franklin Ave. in Scranton owned by John Basalgya, shown here on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024.
The building has been cleaned and renovated and the law firm located there at the time of the fire, is moving back in.
(JIM LOCKWOOD/STAFF PHOTO)