A Pennsylvania woman has filed a lawsuit against the estate of her children’s grandmother, who died along with her two grandsons in a fire at the elderly woman’s New Jersey home in July.
The fire broke out around 11 a.m. on July 13 at Grace Colby Drury’s home in West Orange, NJ.com reported.
When firefighters arrived on scene, the Liberty Street home was already filled with heavy smoke caused by a small kitchen fire, authorities said. Inside, they found Drury and her grandchildren, Aiden Drury, 8, and Anthony Drury, 3, already unresponsive.
First responders provided aid to the victims, but to no avail. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to a new lawsuit filed by the boys’ mother, Jennifer Daugherty, Drury failed to keep the property in a “reasonably safe condition.” The lawsuit goes on to accuse the grandmother of negligence, claiming that adequate fire prevention measures could have prevented Aiden and Anthony’s deaths.
In addition to Drury’s estate, the lawsuit also targets Wertheimer & Sons, Inc., a Montville-based contractor who previously worked on the house following a separate fire. But at no point did the workers install functioning smoke detectors, demonstrating a disregard for property safety standards, according to the court documents cited by NJ.com.
Dougherty is seeking monetary damages for wrongful death, funeral expenses and the emotional suffering caused by the loss of her children.
