Suit accuses Chevron of 'gross negligence'

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/First-lawsuit-filed-for-Chevron-fire-3791525.php

Attorneys filed the first lawsuit Wednesday against Chevron in connection with last week's toxic refinery fire and called for an independent monitor to oversee future safety inspections at the Richmond plant.

Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris and two colleagues filed the suit in Contra Costa County Superior Court on behalf of eight residents who live near the plant and suffered health problems they attributed to the Aug. 6 blaze.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and accuses the corporation of gross negligence for ignoring what the attorneys described as a troublesome safety record at the Crude Unit No. 4, where investigators said it appears a 40-year-old pipe failed and was the possible source of the fire.

"This was avoidable," Burris said outside an office he opened on Richmond's Macdonald Avenue to accept new claimants to join the suit. "This community deserves better. They should not have been subjected to the fire and the toxins that flowed from it."