Worker injured in Sioux City, Iowa, landfill explosion sues city

A worker injured in a 2018 methane gas explosion at Citizens Convenience Center in Sioux City, Iowa, has sued the city and three companies for failing to properly monitor the buildup of combustible gas at the site, reports the Sioux City Journal.

Douglas Mallette says in the lawsuit that the city was negligent in securing competent services to detect, monitor, remediate and warn of methane gas inside the scale room at the center or failed to follow a consultant's advice on how to do so.

Also negligent, Mallette said, were Aerionics Inc., doing business as Macurco Gas Detection, of Sioux Falls, which manufactured and sold gas detectors installed at the site; Metro Electric Inc., of Sioux City, which installed two of the detectors at the center; and Barker Lemar and Associates, a West Des Moines engineering consulting firm contracted by the city to monitor the methane levels and periodically inspect the gas monitors.

According to the lawsuit, the methane gas had built up inside the office and scale house and ignited when a worker lit a hand-held lighter. Mallette, of South Sioux City, was one of two Gill Hauling employees hurt in the blast.

Located at the city's closed landfill at 5800 28th St., the Convenience Center accepts items that are not picked up curbside by garbage trucks or are too large to fit inside residential garbage containers. It is also a collection point for household hazardous materials.

The suit alleges Aerionics was negligent in the design and effectiveness of its monitors and that Metro Electric was negligent in the installation and testing of them. Barker Lemar was negligent in its monitoring of methane levels and testing of the monitors to make sure they were accurately reading methane levels.

In an answer to the lawsuit, the Sioux City Journal reports that city attorney Doug Phillips, who is representing Barker Lemar, denied the allegations and said that Mallette's own negligence was a proximate cause of his injuries and that Barker Lemar had no control over whomever caused the explosion. The city and the two other companies have yet to file answers.

Mallette and his wife, Sandra, are seeking an unspecified amount of damages as compensation for past and future medical expenses, physical and mental pain and suffering, disfigurement, lost wages and loss of future earning capacity.