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Hickory company named in lawsuit in wake of fatal plant explosion

Robert C. Reed

A Hickory-based water heater maker is named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of two people injured in a June 9 fatal explosion at a ConAgra Slim Jim plant in Garner. Energy Systems Analysts at 313 Main Ave., NE, is among companies being sued in connection with the natural gas explosion.

By John Dayberry | Hickory Daily Record

Published: June 23, 2009

HICKORY - A Hickory-based water heater maker is named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of two people injured in a June 9 fatal explosion at a ConAgra Slim Jim plant in Garner.

Energy Systems Analysts at 313 Main Ave., NE, is among companies being sued in connection with the natural gas explosion, which killed three people and injured nearly 40.

David Stradley, of the Raleigh law firm White and Stradley, said the Hickory contractor manufactured and helped install a gas water heater in a pump room investigators think may be at the center of the blast.

The lawsuit claims Energy Systems Analysts "is not licensed in North Carolina to install, connect or in any way manipulate pipes which deliver natural gas."

It also charges the company with failing to evacuate the plant "after it became clear that natural gas was venting into the plant" when the water heater was being brought on line.

According to the company's Web site, Dean Poppe founded the privately owned Hickory company in 1991.

Telephone and e-mail messages left at the company Monday were not returned.

Also named defendants in the lawsuit are Energy Systems Analysts employee Curtis Ray Poppe; California-based Jacobs Engineering Group, which Stradley said drew up the installation plans; and Raleigh-based Southern Industrial Constructors, mechanical contractor.

North Carolina safety regulators said they are investigating 10 companies in the explosion.

N.C. Labor Department spokeswoman Delores Quesenberry said Energy Systems Analysts has not been cited or investigated for suspected workplace safety violations in the past.

Raleigh attorney David Coates of Bailey & Dixon represents Energy Systems. Coates could not be reached Monday.

The June 9 blast ripped through the plant while 300 people were working, collapsing parts of the roof and crushing nearby parked cars.

Two federal agencies have since blamed natural gas for the blast.

Last week, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said contractors installing a water heater likely vented natural gas inside the building before the explosion as they purged a gas line. The gas should be vented outside.

Labor Department spokesman Neal O'Briant said it could be several months before the state's investigation is complete.