Casper, Meadows, Schwartz & Cook helped the Family of firefighter Scott Desmond recover a $4.6 million settlement in wrongful death suit.
The family of a Contra Costa Fire District engineer who was one of four killed in a 2007 San Pablo house fire received a $4.6 million civil settlement by two private alarm companies, attorneys in the wrongful-death lawsuit said Tuesday.
“Scott Desmond was a hero and he died doing his job, attempting to save lives, so I’m not happy with the resolution only because you can never be happy in situations like this,” said Andrew Schwartz, attorney for Desmond’s widow, Carolyn, and son, Tyler. “It’s a fair settlement under the circumstances.”
There was about a 10-minute delay between the time Gayle Moore notified a Pinnacle employee through an intercom that there was an active fire in the house and the time the first fire crew was dispatched. A Pinnacle representative called the fire district’s nonemergency dispatch line and said there was a fire alarm report, rather than relaying that the homeowner told them the fire was burning. The wrong terminology and incorrect phone line sent the call plummeting down the fire district’s priority list.