JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A law firm announced Monday that it has reached a settlement exceeding over $16 million in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, stemming from a 2020 ship fire incident on Blount Island that injured 11 firefighters.
On June 4, 2020, hundreds of firefighters responded to the ship called the 'Hoegh Xiamen,' a Norway car carrier ship, after a fire broke out.
"Communication was impossible because the captain and crew only spoke Chinese," the law firm, Pajcic & Pajcic said in a news release.
The fire caused an explosion in which according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), happened because of a spark from a car battery on the ship. Additionally, NTSB said in its report released a year and a half after the incident, that car batteries weren't disconnected and secured before the cargo ship left the dock.
The fire resulted in $40 million in damage and sent nine Jacksonville firefighters to a local hospital. No one died in the explosion, but some of the first responders were severely injured. The injured employees represented in the lawsuit include two chiefs, two lieutenants, two engineers, two paramedics and two firefighters. None of the vessel’s 21 crew members were injured during the incident.
"While its owners had the Hoegh Xiamen towed away to be scrapped, the injured firefighters were left with a lifetime of damages caused by the inferno," the release states.
It took firefighters more than a week to officially put the fire out; Pajcic & Pajcic previously told First Coast News they encountered temperatures that reached more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The NTSB issued eight safety recommendations to federal regulators and the companies involved in the incident as a result of the investigation.
During the investigation, officials found that the fire detection system had not been reactivated after loading the ship was completed, which led to a delay in calling for help.
Officials also found the following safety issues during the investigation:
- Training for and oversight of vehicle battery securement
- Regulatory exceptions for used and damaged flammable liquid-powered vehicles
- Fire detection system deactivation during effective emergency distress calls
The public docket for the investigation contains more than 750 pages of information, including interview transcripts, photographs and other investigative materials.
Click here to view the full accident report.
"For the first time in American judice prudence, in the history of maritime law, first responders have now been recognized to have a right to hold negligent ship owners and negligent shippers accountable and responsible when they cause harm to first responders," Attorney Curry Pajcic said at a press conference Monday. "Never in history of admiralty law or American Jurisprudence, until this case, could a ship owner be held responsible for their conduct when they hurt our first responders."
Pajcic & Pajcic said multi-million dollar settlements were reached one by one with each of the defendants, the last one occurred on the eve of the scheduled five-week jury trial.
Hoegh defendants, who the law firm in the release states firefighters "viewed as the most culpable," settled for an additional, confidential amount before the trial as well.
“These companies clearly put profits over safety and took shortcuts that could have cost these firefighters their lives," Pajcic said in the release.
"We are so grateful that this case has been resolved and we are thankful for the Pajcic team for fighting this battle," Firefighter Shawn O’Shell added in the release. "We are all still haunted by that terrifying day, and we hope this result will spare other first responders from going through something like this in the future."
The four defendants listed in the lawsuit are Horizon Terminal Services, SSA Atlantic, LLC, Grimaldi Deep Sea S.P.A. and Höegh Autoliners.
