SPS Technologies fire in Abington is extinguished. Now, a class-action lawsuit seeks answers
The fire that began last Monday night was officially extinguished at 3:53 p.m. Saturday. A lawsuit in Philadelphia is seeking class-action status on behalf of residents and businesses in the area.
The four-alarm factory fire in Montgomery County that began with a series of explosions last Monday night — closing schools, halting SEPTA trains, triggering local evacuations, and prompting Abington officials to declare a disaster emergency — was finally extinguished at 3:53 p.m. Saturday, township officials announced.
Now, comes the complicated part: Who is going to pay?
SPS Technologies, an aerospace parts manufacturer, is facing a potential class-action lawsuit alleging that the company’s negligence contributed to the fire at its 600,000-square-foot plant on Highland Avenue.
The suit claims that SPS failed to inspect, maintain, or properly operate the facility and uphold industry standards.
The lead plaintiff is a local school bus driver, but the suit is seeking class-action status on behalf of “hundreds if not thousands” of people and businesses who may have sustained damages, including lost wages, reduced value of their properties, and emotional distress.
SPS did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the local fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. No fatalities were reported.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court by Philadelphia law firm Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, which represented victims of the 2013 Salvation Army building collapse and the 2021 condominium collapse in suburban Miami, and Stranch, Jennings & Garvey, a Nashville, Tenn.-based law firm that has been involved in national opioid litigation.
“While it is too soon to fully ascertain the root cause of this disaster, or on present or future environmental and health impacts, it is not too soon to assert ... there were numerous operational failures and that a well-managed and maintained manufacturing facility doesn’t just catch fire, explode, then burn uncontrollably,” the attorneys said in a statement.
“We have this massive factory and it basically spontaneously combusted,” Patrick Howard, a lawyer with Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, said on Sunday. “One hour it’s completely fine, then the next hour it’s on fire. That is our good-faith basis to say something went wrong.”
SPS, which is owned by the Precision Castparts unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Corp., produces specialized nuts, bolts, and other fasteners for the aviation and aerospace industries. The company is a large generator of chemical waste, some of which is categorized as “ignitable.”
In 2023, SPS reached an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to pay $109,000 for storing chemicals without a permit, and it has previously been investigated for underground storage tanks that leaked trichloroethylene into the groundwater.
When the fire broke out Monday, officials were concerned that some of the chemicals on site could form arsenic if mixed. Firefighters from 68 companies responded to the scene.
Subsequent testing by the EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection have shown no major air or water problems, officials said. Testing in the area will continue.
At a news conference Tuesday, while firefighters were still battling the blaze, Tom McAneney, Abington’s director of fire and emergency management services, disclosed that the sprinkler system at SPS was “out of service” at the time of the fire due to a maintenance issue, but that the company “followed all precautions that are required under the law.”
“They had a fire watch in place, and … they have a fire brigade on site … [which] allows them to be able to continue to operate even when the sprinkler system was out of service,” McAneney said.
There have been smaller fires at the factory, according to fire department response data collected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They show that between 2022 and 2023, local fire departments responded to at least four reports of fire there.
Howard said filing the lawsuit early will enable outside experts to gain access to company records and other information that could be relevant to the fire.
“I think there are legitimate concerns that people’s health and safety may have been impacted,” Howard said, drawing possible parallels to the February 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
On Saturday afternoon, Abington officials announced that the fire — which had unexpectedly flared up Tuesday morning — was finally out.
“This has been a herculean effort of fire and emergency management services. We cannot begin to express our gratitude to the over 100 various responding agencies who have assisted the Township in its efforts,” the township’s statement said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro was on site Saturday to inspect the cleanup and thank first responders.
One former employee last week told The Inquirer that he recalled at least a half dozen fires during his 37 years at the plant, and that they happened often enough for the company to have once had its own fire truck. “They got put out fast enough,” he said. “It kind of felt like it came with the job.”
A current SPS employee with knowledge of the facility said the building had been without working sprinklers for about two months.
“Was I surprised to hear that [the place] was on fire? Yes,” the employee said. “Was I surprised to hear how bad it got? No.”