Victims of the Carmichael Development Explosion Are Still Awaiting Answers

• November 27, 2024
• Attorney Matt Stoddard
• Premises Liability

The explosion at Carmichael Development in Canton is still under investigation. Or rather, it was still under investigation, as of the last public update. A month has passed since the initial press coverage and the statement from the Cherokee County Fire Department. No new details have been added so far.

What we do know is this:

On October 21st, 2024, an explosion set fire to the Carmichael Development building on Univeter Road in Canton, Georgia.

Firefighters arrived to find two people suffering from burn injuries, and flames engulfing a dump truck, a Conex trailer, and part of the outside of the building. They were able to extinguish the fire relatively quickly, and confirm that there were no further victims inside.

Univeter Road remained closed to traffic for another hour, however, due to a large diesel spill at the explosion site. The fire department ended up needing the help of a dedicated hazmat team to clean up the scene and render it safe.

Both of the victims received hospital care for their burns. Their identities have not been revealed.

Accident Victims Often Need Legal Help to Ensure a Full Investigation

It’s possible for a fire investigation to take as long as several months, especially if the fire was large, deadly, or associated with possible criminal activity. However, it’s also common for fire investigations, as well as other types of accident investigations, to end without any publicity, and often without answering the questions that matter most to the victims.

This phenomenon is understandable, in a way. Fire departments exist primarily to save lives. Once a dangerous situation is neutralized, the survivors rescued, and the general cause determined, digging through the fine details will always be a lower priority than responding to the next life-threatening emergency.

Similarly, police departments focus on crime. News outlets focus on whatever recent events are most interesting or important to the general public. There’s nothing specifically driving them to understand every step that led to an accident from weeks ago.

Unfortunately, this can leave survivors with only a basic label for what happened to them, like “accidental diesel explosion.” Vital information, such as who was responsible for storing the diesel, may not come to light until civil lawyers get involved.

When an accident survivor hires a lawyer, it means that someone is responsible for following through on the investigation, for as long as it takes to find out not just what happened but why it happened.

The Public Story Doesn’t Pinpoint a Culprit, but It Presents a Few Candidates

Just because an incident is genuinely accidental doesn’t mean that it’s no one’s fault. Most accidents are avoidable and result from carelessness or corner-cutting. Survivors deserve to know whose negligence made an accident possible, and to collect fair compensation for their pain and expenses.

Based on the limited public information, it’s reasonable to guess that the Carmichael Development explosion may have started with one of the company’s own vehicles.

Carmichael Development is a construction company specializing in excavation, demolition, utility installation, and other early-stage sitework. Most of the heavy machinery used for these tasks runs on diesel.

The reports mention a dump truck, which might bring to mind a city sanitation vehicle, but the term “dump truck” can also refer to construction vehicles used for hauling materials. Construction dump trucks often use trailers like the one found at the scene for added capacity.

The fact that the damage to the building started from the exterior also supports the idea that the explosion came from the truck and spread flames to the building, rather than the other way around.

If that is how the explosion occurred, the responsible party might be:

• Carmichael Development itself — If the company contributed to the explosion by neglecting the vehicle or the surrounding premises, that would count as negligence. Companies are also responsible for what their employees do during the course of business, so if an employee caused a spark or an impact, such as by smoking near an open fuel tank or backing the vehicle into a structure, that would also be grounds for the victims to sue Carmichael Development.
• The vehicle’s manufacturer — In spite of how flammable diesel and gasoline can be, it’s actually fairly difficult for a well-built vehicle to explode. If the manufacturer failed to include common safety mechanisms, or knowingly used substandard components, that would be negligence on the manufacturer’s part.
• Any maintenance companies that worked on the vehicle — Sometimes the company that makes a vehicle does a fine job, and the company that owns it arranges and pays for appropriate professional maintenance, but the company supposedly providing that maintenance is the one that falls short. In these cases, the maintenance company is liable for any resulting accidents.
• The diesel supplier — Not all diesel fuel is identical. Fuel that is incorrectly formulated might be more volatile than normal, or cause engine blockages and overheating. This could easily make a diesel supplier an appropriate defendant for an explosion lawsuit.

There could of course be other negligent parties involved as well. It will take a thorough examination of the evidence to determine fault.

The Victims’ Employment Status Could Affect Their Compensation Options

Who the victims worked for and why they were present at the scene might not seem all that important to an investigation about an accidental diesel explosion. For the purpose of covering the victims’ expenses, however, employment is a crucial factor.

Employers are immune to most personal injury lawsuits from their employees. Instead of suing, injured employees are entitled to file for worker’s compensation, but even an ideal worker’s comp settlement won’t cover more than two thirds of the victim’s lost income plus approved medical expenses.

So, for example, if the victims of the diesel explosion were both Carmichael Development employees, they wouldn’t be able to sue Carmichael Development, no matter how negligently the company might have behaved.

This is another reason why it’s so important for accident survivors to have a legal expert in their corner. When an employer turns out to be at least partially responsible for an accident, it’s easy to give up on full compensation. But expert personal injury lawyers know that identifying one negligent party doesn’t mean that there aren’t others. In fact, it often takes a series of several mistakes to prompt a serious accident.

As long as a company other than the victim’s employer was responsible for even one of those mistakes, there’s a chance for a fair civil settlement.

If you are one of the burn victims from the Carmichael Development explosion, please feel free to reach out to the Stoddard Firm at any time for a free consultation on your options.