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Stemple Electrical Fire | Video Transcript
NARRATOR: The night of November 24th, 1998 was a night of horror for the Stemple family.
NARRATOR: Kathy Stemple, her husband James, their children Shannon and Becky, their two foster sisters, foster brother, and Kathy Stemple's mother Glenomy Roth slept in their beds totally unaware of the fire that would shortly begin destroying their lives.
SHANNON STEMPLE: I heard the fire crackling or something. And I ran up the stairs, and it went--it was coming up after--behind me.
NARRATOR: As Shannon Stemple slept in his grandmother's house, Allegheny Energy Company sent a dangerous power surge into Glenomy Roth's house. The surge created an arc in the wiring and started a fire that ultimately consumed the entire house and several members of the Stemple family.
NARRATOR: Shockingly, this fire came as no surprise to Glenomy Roth's family or to any of her neighbors. Electrical disruptions were so common in the Aurora Horseshoe Run area that the neighbors had joked before the terrible night of November 24th with James Stemple. When the lights would go dim in their houses, they might say, "I wonder whose house is going to burn down tonight."
NARRATOR: The residents in the Aurora Horseshoe Run area were very concerned about the electrical power surges they were experiencing, but Allegheny Energy was not.
NARRATOR: Even more astonishingly, Allegheny Energy Company despoiled critical evidence in this case.
NARRATOR: After the fire, Allegheny Energy took the transformer off the electrical pole near the Stemples' house and have made it unavailable as evidence in this case.
NARRATOR: Whatever testimony Allegheny Energy chooses to present in this case will be viewed by the jury with a jaundiced eye because of Allegheny Energy's conduct in removing and destroying the crucial evidence of the Stemple home transformer.
NARRATOR: Because of its callous disregard of repeated complaints from the West Virginians living in the area regarding electrical disruptions and power surges.
NARRATOR: And most of all because of the total lack of personnel at Allegheny Energy devoted to ensuring the safety of its electrical transmission system. Allegheny Energy's cover-up and disregard for its customers' safety will no doubt magnify the jury's award.
NARRATOR: The jury will be shocked to learn that after six fires within a few miles of one another, Allegheny Energy did nothing to make its systems safer.
NARRATOR: The damages portion of this case will be a story told with photographs from hell.
NARRATOR: Allegheny Energy will be responsible for the pain and suffering Glenomy Roth experienced before she died.
NARRATOR: Considering that she had third-degree burns over most of her body and numerous compound fractures, a jury is likely to make a very substantial award for her pain and suffering before she died.
NARRATOR: Her family will also be entitled to be compensated through the Wrongful Death Act for the loss of society, love, solace, support, and guidance that Glenomy Roth would have provided them had she lived.
NARRATOR: In light of the close relationship that Glenomy Roth had with her children and grandchildren, this award can likewise be expected to be very substantial. Glenomy Roth was not a little old lady but was a fairly young and vital woman when she died.
NARRATOR: Upon hearing this evidence, the jury will have an opportunity to express its outrage at Allegheny Energy's conduct in the only way available to them, through a substantial award of damages.
NARRATOR: The impact of all of Allegheny Energy's negligence in this case is staggering.
NARRATOR: There is perhaps no more horrible fate on earth than to be burned alive.
NARRATOR: Three years after the Stemple fire, the world watched while Americans jumped hundreds of feet to certain death from high floors of the World Trade Center simply to get away from fire.
