Lawsuit filed in Yaffe Blast

[ APRIL 17, 2009 - POTEAU, OK ] - The parents of a worker who died following an explosion at Yaffe Iron and Metal Co.’s Arkoma scrap metal facility in November have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Yaffe companies and an employment company that served Yaffe.

Tammy Baggett and Steve Fontenot, the parents of Stephen Chance Fontenot, 25, of Fort Smith filed the suit in LeFlore County on Feb. 3. They are represented by attorney Robert J. Haupt of the Phillips Murrah law firm.

Stephen Chance Fontenot died on Nov. 18, 2008, from injuries he sustained in an explosion on Nov. 3 while attempting to salvage with a blow torch the brass of a purportedly demilitarized artillery shell. According to police reports, the explosion caused extensive injuries to his body and required the amputation of one of his legs.

The lawsuit alleges five causes of action against defendants The Yaffe Cos. Inc., Yaffe Iron and Metal Co. of Oklahoma, Yaffe Iron and Metal Co. of Arkansas, and TEC the Employment Co. of Arkansas. The suit contends:

• Possession of 105 mm Howitzer artillery shells involves a high degree of risk of harm, directing someone to cut one with a torch creates a likelihood of great harm, and that there is little or no ability to eliminate the risk of harm.

• The defendants failed to provide a work environment free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm. It also contends the defendants violated state and federal laws and regulations.

• The defendants knew assigning the worker the task was substantially certain to cause him injury.

• The defendants’ actions were willful, wanton, malicious and so extreme that they would be considered atrocious by civilized society.

• The defendants had express and implicit covenants with their employee to provide a safe work environment.

The suit alleges Yaffe has a history of salvage yard explosions, including a Nov. 19 fire at the same scrap yard and a Dec. 28, 2004, explosion that killed three people and injured 14 more at its Muskogee facility. At the time, Arkoma police said the cause of the Nov. 19 fire was a metal shredder that sent a large hot piece of metal onto a pile of flammable materials.

On April 13, TEC attorney James K. Secrest II, filed a cross petition denying that TEC committed any act or omission that caused or contributed to Stephen Chance Fontenot’s death, and in an alternative pleading asks the court for recovery judgment for TEC against all the Yaffe defendants should the employment agency be found guilty of negligence in the case.

According to police and LeFlore County Emergency Services reports, Yaffe officials said the company had obtained the shells 15 to 20 years previously and believed they were inert.

Bomb technicians later found only one possibly live shell among the about 2,000 remaining at the site. Most of the shells were military practice rounds sold for scrap. According to authorities, all the shells were removed at Yaffe’s request.

In November, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration began an investigation into conditions at the scrap yard.

That investigation was expected to take several months.

A call placed to Yaffe attorney Bradley Jackson of Tulsa was not returned Thursday.