ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 23, 1993                   TAG: 9310230101
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


MAN BURNED IN FIRE WINS LAWSUIT

A federal jury awarded $4 million Friday to a Roanoke man who was engulfed by a fireball that trapped him inside an industrial tank.

Harry G. Young was severely burned over 50 percent of his body in a 1990 explosion and fire at Shenandoah Industrial Rubber Co. in Salem, where he worked.

After hearing five days of testimony in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, the jury decided the manufacturer of a "topcoat" adhesive that Young was using failed to provide adequate warnings about the highly volatile chemical.

United Technologies Corp. was ordered to pay one of the largest verdicts in a products liability case in the Roanoke Valley, according to Brent Brown, a Roanoke attorney who represented Young.

Co-counsel Bruce Rasmussen of Charlottesville told the jury that United Technologies was "playing Russian roulette with Harry Young's life" by putting such a dangerous product on the market with an insufficient warning label.

Witnesses testified that two or three cups of the adhesive had the explosive potential of 10 pounds of TNT.

Young, 50, was using the adhesive on Dec. 5, 1990 to line a tank when its vapors were ignited, most likely by a spark or heat from a nearby fan or heater.

In an explosion that knocked a garage door off the building, flames shot from the origin of the blast back into the tank, where Young was surrounded by the invisible fumes.

"The testimony was that he went up like a candle," Brown said.

Co-workers could see Young and another man burning in the tank before using fire extinguishers and water hoses to put out the fire. William Cadd, who was not as seriously injured, has a lawsuit pending.

When Young was pulled from the tank, he was breathing fire from his mouth and nose, witnesses said.

He spent several months at the University of Virginia Hospital, where doctors gave him a 2 percent chance of survival.

"He's just a real fighter," Brown said. Young has extensive scars on his arms and neck, speaks with a rasping voice altered by the burns, and faces additional medical treatment and therapy.

But the worst part of the ordeal is no longer being able to work for a living, he testified.

"He's always been a working man, holding two jobs," Brown said. "So despite the disfigurement and the scars, the real loss was with a man who had always felt it was his job to take care of his family."

William Poff, a Roanoke attorney who represented United Technologies, said the company plans to appeal.

Poff had argued to the jury that United Technologies could have done little to prevent the fire, given problems with poor working conditions and lax supervision at Shenandoah Rubber.

A label on the five-gallon container had warned not to use the product near a heat source, and instructed workers to use proper ventilation, Poff said.

"The plaintiff always has the benefit of 20-20 hindsight," Poff told the jury. "You see how the game is played. You have an accident and then you see how you can fit it into whatever holes there are in the warning."

Young has incurred about $800,000 in lost wages and medical expenses. Rasmussen asked the jury to also consider his pain and suffering in returning a $6 million verdict.

"That's like what they want Santa Claus to bring them," Poff responded in his closing argument. "Do not be beguiled by that."

Brown and Rasmussen had argued that United Technologies should have provided more detailed warnings, including the need for "explosion proof" equipment.

They also pointed to testimony that the company, with only four customers for its "topcoat" adhesive, was more interested in other, more lucrative products.

Company officials have said in depositions that they were instructed to "milk the cow," selling the adhesive to whoever would buy it without devoting resources to research and development or safety studies.

"They're trying to make Harry a victim twice," Rasmussen told the jury. "A victim on Dec. 5, 1990, and a victim here today at your hands."

"He's a human being that deserved better than this."



 by CNB