Court cases follow in fire’s wake
BELLA VISTA — Grass covers an area on Trafalgar Road where smoke belched from the ground for almost a year until last June.
The last embers of the smoldering underground fire now rest with the courts.
Contractors started work May 18, 2019, after the Bella Vista Property Owners Association took the job of extinguishing the fire and cleaning the 4.74-acre site from the state’s environmental quality agency on May 3.
The fire was out June 4, 2019. City firefighters discovered the blaze on July 29, 2018.
Residents were cautioned about being outside during that time, and daily air monitoring became the norm. Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other state officials visited the site in late December 2018, and U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., roamed the area for an afternoon in February 2019.
Residents worried about what might have been burning underground because of what had been dumped at the site for years.
Mayor Peter Christie said residents have mostly moved on from the fire.
“No one is asking what will happen next,” he said.
That wasn’t always the case. Residents demanded action as putrid smoke hung over the site and the nearby homes for months. People who lived near the fire had to adjust their lives to gauge the wind direction, and they quickly learned how to read the air quality index.
The Arkansas Department of Health in December 2018 said preliminary results of monitoring near the fire showed air quality in the “unhealthy” category, according to a news release. Everyone within a half-mile radius of the 8000 block of Trafalgar Road was asked to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.
Keith Childress, who lives nearby, said the smell of smoke is gone, but he vividly remembers days when his clothes carried the scent of burning wood after being outside.
Aaron DeCelle, who also lives near the site, moderated two town hallstyle meetings as residents pleaded with local and state officials for something to be done. The fire might still be burning if residents hadn’t gotten involved and started at the grassroots level to see action, DeCelle said.
“It shows what can happen when people band together,” he said.
DeCelle would like to see the site seeded with wildflowers and the area go back to nature.
The bulk of the remediation work is done, officials said. Remediation includes stabilization, erosion control and the growth of ground cover, said Tom Judson, the property owners association’s chief operating officer.
The project is in the stabilization phase, and groundwater monitoring is still being done, according to officials from the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality.
“Erosion control has been, and continues to be, our biggest challenge due to the steepness of the terrain and the extremely wet conditions we have been experiencing,” Judson said.
ERM, the company hired to administer the site, communicates with the Environmental Quality Division on a regular basis, Judson said.
The estimated cost to extinguish the fire and remediate the site is $4.1 million, Judson said.
The association paid all of the money out of pocket, he said.
The association hopes to recoup a significant amount of the money through litigation and negotiation with other parties, he said. The association sold 366 acres for $1.5 million last year to help pay for part of the expenses, he said.
Lawsuits involving the fire have popped up.
Bella Vista residents Curtis and Tiffany Macomber, who live near the site, filed a lawsuit in November 2018 alleging that Brown’s Tree Care, the association and Blue Mountain Storage were responsible for the underground fire that created hazardous conditions.
The dump was operated from 2003 to 2016 by the association on land leased from Blue Mountain Storage. The dump was a convenience for builders and residents in the area needing to dispose of organic matter, including fall leaves. By the time the fire was found burning underground in July 2018, Brown’s Tree Service had purchased the land.
The Macombers’ lawsuit says smoke from the fire harmed them and their children, according to court documents.
The association submitted claims to two insurance companies when the lawsuit was filed.
The association changed insurance coverage in 2007. Scottsdale Insurance, now called Nationwide, insured the association until 2007, and Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Carrier, which insured the association from 2007-16, denied the request for coverage, Judson told the association at a board meeting.
The insurance companies claim the association’s insurance policies never covered the dump because the association didn’t list it for coverage as it did with other amenities, according to court documents.
The association filed a lawsuit against both companies. It also filed a cross-complaint against the other defendants in the residents’ lawsuit — Tom Fredericks; Blue Mountain Storage, which Fredericks owned; Brown’s Tree Care; and BTS Equipment — looking for reimbursement for the money spent putting out the fire.
Association members Michael
and Amie Armstrong filed a lawsuit against former association board members. The lawsuit wants to hold them responsible for the fire. The lawsuit argues that the former board members were aware the association was using the site as an unmonitored dump and didn’t take any action to stop the dumping of prohibited items at the site for a fee from January 2004 to December 2016.
The lawsuit seeks to hold the former board members responsible for paying the association the millions of dollars spent to fight the fire. The lawsuit isn’t seeking any money from the association. A motion hearing in the cases is scheduled for July 6. A trial is scheduled for April 2021.
The property owners association doesn’t own the land on Trafalgar Road but is able to work the site through authority granted by the Environmental Quality Division via an administrative order, Judson said.
Some residents told Christie last year that they would like to see a park on the site in the future. Others have said to let the area grow out.
In a May 6, 2019, video posted to the association website, Judson gave an idea of what the site might look like after remediation.
“Our hope is that a year, two years, five years from now when people drive by that site, they go, ‘Wow, that’s kind of a nice area.’ And maybe someone goes, ‘And that’s where the fire was!’ And they go: ‘Really, there was a fire there? It looks pretty nice now.’”