Petco employee files lawsuit
No criminal charges filed with close of county prosecutor’s investigation
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN — One of the five persons rescued, but injured, in the March 4 explosion and collapse of the Petco store here has filed a lawsuit against several parties that his lawyer says could be held responsible for the accident.

Claiming that the defendants failed to adequately ensure the safety of the now-demolished pet store where the employee was working during the course of an outdoor construction project, Nicholas Yacalis, 19, of Wall, filed suit in state Superior Court, Freehold, on Friday, according to his attorney, Norman M. Hobbie of Eatontown.

Yacalis, who Hobbie indicated has been hospitalized twice for injuries he received when he was trapped inside the collapsed building following the sudden explosion of an exterior gas line, is suing for both emotional and physical pain and suffering, loss of income, and loss of enjoyment of life, his attorney said.

LGR Associates of Huntington Station, N.Y., the company that owned the building that once housed the Eatontown Petco, and several other parties involved in some way with construction of lighting and signage behind the demolished store at the southeast corner of route s35 and 36, are named as defendants in the suit, Hobbie said.

The other named defendants are J. Patock Construction of Tinton Falls, the general contractor for the lighting construction; J.F. Kiely Construction of Long Branch, the subcontractor that was performing excavation work behind the pet store at the time of the explosion; Utiliquest of Atlanta, the company responsible for marking utility lines outside the building prior to excavating; and New Jersey Natural Gas, which owns the gas lines, Hobbie said.

More defendants could be named later, Hobbie noted, pending further research of Yacalis’ case.

Yacalis has also filed for workers’ compensation from San Diego-based Petco, which initially ordered the additional lighting and signage at the back of the building, Hobbie said.

The former Petco was also accessible via a back entrance off Wall Street.

Yacalis’ lawsuit charges negligence by all of the defendants as well as failure to properly inspect, maintain, and supervise work on the premises and failure to provide a safe and secure working environment, Hobbie explained.

The defendants should be served with the lawsuit within “the next two weeks,” he said.

State law prohibits disclosure of the monetary amount sought by the plaintiff, Hobbie noted.

As of Tuesday, LGR Associates was unaware of the filing of the lawsuit, according to Robert Lutzker, a company official, who declined further comment.

Likewise, Patock has not yet been served in the matter, according to Steven Walsh, an official with that firm.

Patock’s insurance company has been handling anything regarding Petco so far, Walsh said without further comment.

Kiely’s attorney, Robert Zoller, and representatives of Utiliquest and New Jersey Natural Gas could not be reached for comment at press time.

To date, Yacalis remains bedridden at home, having been diagnosed with multiple fractures of the spine and a fractured ankle, Hobbie confirmed.

Although he was released from Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune earlier this month after he was taken there for treatment immediately after the explosion, Yacalis was readmitted to the same hospital recently complaining of pain from his injuries, the attorney said.

Evidence gathered by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, which led the investigation, shows a gas smell poured into the Petco store just after a backhoe operated by a Kiely employee severed the utility line while digging a trench behind the building.

Upon smelling the natural gas, Yacalis promptly evacuated customers and animals from the store, Hobbie pointed out.

“[Yacalis] helped people out of the building and rescued some of the animals,” Hobbie said. “During that process, there was an explosion.”

When the debris settled, Yacalis found that his foot was trapped in the rubble, preventing him from exiting the collapsed building, Hobbie went on. He was ultimately freed by firemen who rushed to the scene.

“He was in excruciating pain,” Hobbie said.

Yacalis was one of five persons, including four Petco employees, who were caught inside and later rescued from the debris. Though about three-quarters of the animals trapped inside were also rescued, many others died, according to officials from the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

Two of the injured, Jennifer Rohan, 34, of Dumont, Bergen County, who was the on-duty manager at the time of the accident, and Marcus Gordon, 37, of Oceanport, a Kiely worker who warned store employees to evacuate the building, remain hospitalized at Jersey Shore.

At press time, Rohan was listed in serious condition and Gordon remained in critical condition, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Having found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the county Prosecutor’s Office closed its investigation into the Petco matter on March 15, said First Assistant Prosecutor Robert Honecker.

The explosion and collapse have been ruled “accidental in nature” and the prosecutor’s office has now turned over the investigation to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), Honecker has said.