Tenants sue flooring, real estate companies over fire in nearby building

Residents of a Cook County apartment building are suing over claims flooring work in a nearby building started a fire that damaged theirs.

Larisa Olson, Noah Schak, Wendy Bryant, Shirley McCarty, Mark Brow and Rey Samson filed a lawsuit July 15 in the Cook County Circuit Court against Expert Flooring Inc. and Urban Equities Real Estate Consultants Inc.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs were all residents of Urban Equities Real Estate's building on the corner of Lunt and Bell avenues in Chicago on July 24, 2013, when a fire broke out in a nearby building.

The plaintiffs contend that an employee of Expert Flooring applied a polyurethane coat to a kitchen floor without ensuring the stove's pilot light was off, causing a fire in a nearby building that spread to their building.

In addition to fire and smoke damage, the suit states the plaintiffs' building was not boarded up and some residents' sustained losses to theft.

Expert Flooring is accused of negligence, and Urban Equities is accused of negligent hiring and failing to board up the damaged premises.

Each of the plaintiffs is seeking money from the defendants to cover property damage in the following amounts: Olson $25,504; Schak $30,550; Bryant $34,703; McCarty $8,429; Brow $13,800; and Samson $46,125.

They are being represented by Jeffrey S. Deutschman and Bradley A. Skafish of Deutschman & Associates P.C. in Chicago.

Cook County Circuit Court Case No. 2014L007393.

This is a report on a civil lawsuit filed in the Cook County Circuit Court. The details in this report come from an original complaint filed by a plaintiff. Please note, a complaint represents an accusation by a private individual, not the government. It is not an indication of guilt, and it only represents one side of the story.