The Associated Press
Updated: 5:37 p.m. ET June 3, 2005MORGANTOWN, W.Va.

A man who says he was severely burned when a portable toilet exploded after he sat down and lit a cigarette is suing a general contractor and a coal company, accusing them of negligence.

John Jenkins, 53, and his wife, Ramona Jenkins, 35, of Brave, Pa., filed the suit Tuesday in county circuit court seeking $10 million in damages from Chisler Inc. and Eastern Associated Coal Corp.

The lawsuit claims Jenkins’ face, neck, arms, torso and legs were severely burned last July after the cigarette ignited methane gas leaking from a pipe underneath the toilet unit.

“When I struck the lighter, the whole thing just detonated — the whole top blew off,” said Jenkins, a methane power plant operator with North West Fuels Development Inc. “I can’t tell you if it blew me out the door or if I jumped out.”

Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler Inc. ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak.

A call to the Charleston office of Peabody Energy, the parent company of Eastern Associated Coal, was not returned.

A man who answered the phone at Chisler’s office in Fairview said the company had no comment.
--------------

I wonder if the fact that he is a methane plant operator and smokes will adversly affect the outcome of his suit.

A methane plant is about the worst place to light up. Nobody deserves a horrible accident like this, but....how stupid can you get? His habit was begging for something horrible to happen.

This is almost on par with the lady who put her cat in the microwave... Doesn't he know what the chemicals are in those portable toilets?! Why they smell like they do?

Geesh.

He was undoubtedly smoking in a area not designated as NO SMOKING. Him lighting a cigarette should have not contributed to the explosion.
It's possible that even static electricity would have ignited methane gas.

I'm wondering if this is the story in its entirety or if there is something missing here. As a carpenter, I've been in many a 'Porta-Potty', as the portables are usually called, and the unit is simply a holding tank, usually filled with chemical and water, and vented with a pipe that runs from the tank, through where the user is, and out the top of the unit. Obviously, the chemical and water aren't explosive, but what makes things explosive is when they aren't serviced regularly enough, and the contents overpowers the chemicals. Which is why they have no smoking signs on them--at least all the ones I've ever used. Sounds a bit more like the unit vent had a leak, the unit was overdue for emptying, and/or the man is illiterate.

Every one I've ever seen has had a no smoking sign. And, maybe I'm reading this wrong, but the man is a methane expert? at some sort of coal plant? Wouldn't he be aware of the danger of gas leaks and the way it acccumulates?
Exploding tiolets are nothing new, it happens around here reasonably often, due to the high levels of natural gas in some parts of the province. In some places, if your toilet is serviced from well water, you don't smoke in the bathroom!

Quote:

---

Eastern Associated owns the Blacksville property where the explosion occurred. Jenkins alleges that heavy equipment from Chisler Inc. ran over the pipelines before the explosion, causing the methane gas leak

---

It doesn't appear that he's saying the toilet exploded, but that the contrator broke the pipe which leaked, and the coal company owns the yard where it happened.

A few months ago there was an explosion here which killed several people; some construction people broke a natural gas line while working. The company was recently found negligent, I believe. This kind of thing seems to happen way too often.