YORK — A York firefighter and an assistant fire chief who survived the deadly collapse of the Weaver Organ & Piano Co. factory building in March filed lawsuits against an engineering company and its president, alleging that they stated the building was safe to enter, according to court documents.
Erik Swanson and his wife, Donna, and Assistant Fire Chief Greg Altland and his wife, Lisa, filed the lawsuits against Carney Engineering Group Inc., and its president, Joshua Carney, in the York County Court of Common Pleas.
The building collapsed on March 22, while firefighters were inside working to extinguish hot spots left over from a fire at the factory on March 21. Two firefighters — Ivan Flanscha, 50, of Red Lion, and Zachary Anthony, 29, of York — were inside the building on the fourth floor and sustained fatal injuries when the building fell.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the fire, but in March concluded the cause of the fire was “undetermined.”
Flanscha and Anthony’s widows, Casey Flanscha and Allison Brooke Hoffman, filed wrongful death lawsuits against Carney Engineering Group and Carney in May.
In its answer to those lawsuits, the engineering company denied telling the firefighters that the building was structurally sound prior to the collapse.
