New video was released Thursday of a gas explosion at a Florida City strip mall last month as one of the business owners at the plaza said he and his attorneys have even more questions after seeing the footage.
Rudy Betancourt is the owner of Rainbow Smoke Shop, one of several businesses damaged and destroyed in the May 24 gas explosion.
He was able to retrieve surveillance video from inside and outside his business showing the blast. He nor his employee were not there at the time but there were other people at the strip mall that morning.
“Lost everything, lost the business, the workers don’t have work now,” Betancourt said. “Everybody is just not saying anything, everybody is quiet.”
The owner of a Florida City restaurant that was the scene of an explosion speaks.
The video shows that seconds after the blast, people started to make their way outside. Betancourt and his attorneys say in the video, you see the gas employees walking out too.
“You see the man walking away from the explosion, they see it occur, they know it occurs and they walk away and drive off,” attorney Vivian Fazio said.
Attorneys representing the smoke shop are suing the gas company, Florigas. They filed a lawsuit Wednesday, alleging Florigas made several failures.
“Florigas is responsible for the negligence of their contractor whether licensed or unlicensed,” attorney Sam Coffey said.
A Florida City Police report reveals there was gas present in the pipeline which likely led to an explosion at Caribbean’s Heart restaurant. A total of 10 people had to go to the hospital.
Nearly a month after a propane gas explosion at a Florida City strip mall, new surveillance footage is showing the blast from inside one of the businesses while a new lawsuit has also been filed against the gas company.
The police report says a technician from Anel Costatrueba Company told an officer he was working on the gas line to make sure everything was working properly and as soon as he turned on the gas, there was an explosion.
Betancourt’s attorneys say they cannot locate Anel Costatrueba Company but they believe they were the subcontractor. The attorneys say the company didn’t follow basic safety rules.
“If you follow the safety rules and you pull a building permit and you used a licensed contractor to install the gas appliances the explosion should never occur,” Coffey said.
However in this new video the attorney’s shared Thursday, there’s a truck with the name Radiant Propane Gas, which raises more questions for Betancourt, his attorneys and everyone else impacted by the explosion.
“Thank God that nobody really got hurt but just do the right thing, we didn’t create this problem, whoever created the problem come fix the problem,” Betancourt said.
NBC6 reached out to Radiant Propane Gas Thursday. Someone who picked up the phone said that they and Florigas fall under the same ownership. NBC6 has also not heard back from Florigas.
