Fire death settlement was ‘right thing to do’
Insurer of home that burned paying $400,000 to parents
A $400,000 settlement can’t compensate the parents of Mount Marion firefighter Jack Rose for the loss of their son, but the family is glad the owner of the home in which he died, and not the fire company he loved, was found responsible for the young man’s death, their lawyer said Monday.
“Jack loved the fire department, it was a big part of his life,” Joseph O’Connor said.
O’Connor said New York Central Mutual, the company insuring homeowner Mary Alice Mark, of 11 Fei Qui Road in Saugerties, agreed to pay the full value of Mark’s insurance coverage to Rose’s parents, Gary and Linda.
Paul Hurley, of the law firm Boggeman, George and Corde, which represents Mark, confirmed the offer Monday and said “it was the right thing to do.”
O’Connor said Mark’s wood stove was “not correctly attached or installed” and was found to have
caused the Dec. 19, 2015, blaze in which Rose, a captain in the Mount Marion Fire Department, died. The lawyer said previously that the wood stove was installed in violation of fire codes.
Rose, 19, died after going into distress while helping fight a chimney fire at Mark’s home in the Centerville Fire District in the town Saugerties. Investigators concluded the fire was accidental, began in the
structure’s south wall and involved a heating system and wood stove on that wall.
A state Department of Labor investigation found Rose became separated from other firefighters in the basement of Mark’s home while fighting the fire. He was conscious when he was found but was pronounced dead soon after at Health-Alliance Hospital’s Broadway Campus in Kingston.
The cause of Rose’s death
was asphyxia after inhaling superheated gasses, according to a medical examiner’s report.
Two reports about the fire issued in August 2016 by the state Department of Labor’s Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau cited the Mount Marion and Centerville fire departments for numerous violations of federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration codes, including failing
to conduct monthly inspections of their breathing packs. The village of Saugerties Fire Department was not cited.
Rose was wearing a breathing pack while inside the burning house, authorities have said.
Jack Rose’s parents filed a lawsuit in September 2016 alleging negligence by Mark, and in October 2016, the Roses decided against suing the Centerville Fire District
and the village of Saugerties.
On Monday, O’Connor said the family had “no valid claim under New York state law” against the fire departments” but had filed a notice of claim at the time to preserve their right to sue.
O’Connor said Gary and Linda Rose intend to accept the $400,000 offer, which is likely to be approved by Surrogate Court Judge Sara McGinty, probably early next year.