CHICAGO – The Chicago Tribune reports that the children of a fallen Chicago firefighter have filed a lawsuit against the owners of the building where their father died.
Jennifer and Edward Stringer Jr. are suing the owners of South Shore Laundromat. Firefighters Edward Stringer and Corey Ankum were killed on December 22, 2010 when the roof collapsed after firefighters extinguished a fire inside. The laundromat was abandoned earlier and had been in a state of disrepair.
The lawsuit follows the release of the NIOSH Firefighter Fatality investigation report which identified a number of factors within the Chicago Fire Department operations and on the scene that contributed to the firefighter’s deaths.
Read the NIOSH Report
Stringer and Ankum were among 19 firefighters who were also injured when the collapse occurred. Stringer’s autopsy listed “compressional asphyxia from a roof collapse” as the cause of his death. The laundromat owners, Chuck M. Dai and Richard Dai have been named in the suit for failure to properly maintain the building.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the city had cited the owners for 14 separate violations. The building was never repaired and was known to house homeless persons.
The lawsuit does not name the city of Chicago or the Chicago Fire Department as defendants.
