SPS Technologies faces class-action lawsuit following Jenkintown fire

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SPS Technologies is facing a class-action lawsuit following an explosion and subsequent four-alarm inferno at its plant in Jenkintown.

Attorneys at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and Stranch, Jennings & Garvey accused the company of failing “to uphold industry standards” in operations.

Sixty-eight fire companies from across the Delaware Valley responded the evening of Feb. 17 to the four-alarm blaze at the aerospace product manufacturing facility — which burned for days.

“Obviously, something went awry,” said Patrick Howard, a partner at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky.

Marlo Jones, an Abington School District bus driver, is the lead plaintiff in the filing. According to the complaint, she “suffered lost income, lost profits, property damage, and emotional distress” as a result of the fire.

The complaint alleged more residents and local business owners were impacted. The filing said, “hundreds if not thousands of persons have been damaged.”

SPS Technologies did not respond to a request for comment.

Plumes of smoke prompted school closures in Abington, Cheltenham and Jenkintown, SEPTA cancellations, shelter-in-place directives and voluntary evacuation orders.

With numerous hazardous chemicals on-site, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Protection Agency have been monitoring air and water quality for signs of toxins.

So far, officials have not detected levels of contaminants of public concern. Officials said Thursday that the more dangerous chemicals at the site were stored away in a separate building that was not impacted.

Suffocating the smolders proved to be the more difficult operation. Crews began demolishing the building Friday to stomp out the blaze’s remnants.

Firefighters officially extinguished the fire Saturday afternoon. While the site has since been turned back over to SPS Technologies for remediation efforts, the investigation into the fire is underway.

“I don’t have concrete confirmation of its accuracy, but certainly it’s been reported that the sprinkler systems were not working and had not been working for a period of six months,” Howard said.

SPS Technologies had a fire brigade on shift working to suppress the fire. This wasn’t the first fire at the facility. Crews had been down there to squash smaller blazes.

“If you know that there’s a propensity for fire, I think you have to take all necessary steps to prevent this sort of event from happening and it’s not clear to us at this point in time what steps were taken to prevent this sort of event,” Howard said.

The Standard Press Steel Company was founded in 1903. It purchased the property in Jenkintown in 1920. More than half a century later, the company changed its name to SPS Technologies.

Elected officials have pointed to the company as a large source of jobs for the area and expressed support in the company rebuilding.