Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The widow of fallen Buffalo firefighter Jason Arno, has filed a notice of claim against the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Fire Department.
On March 1st, Arno died while battling a blazing four-alarm fire at 745 Main Street in downtown Buffalo. Now, Arno's wife, Sarah-Liz Tierney, is now looking to receive compensation for loss of enjoyment of life, past and future lost wages, and reimbursement for funeral expenses.
Related
"You have to file a notice of claim when you're dealing with a municipality. All that does is put the municipality on notice that you intend to file a lawsuit. It's not a lawsuit per se, at the moment, it's just a notice that you may file one and then you have a year and 90 days to file it from the time of the event," said WBEN's Legal Analyst, Attorney Paul Cambria.
Cambria expects "expert testimony" will be given to describe whether or not the conditions were safe to go in and whether or not the fire could've been approached in a different way. The notice of claim describes “negligence, recklessness and carelessness” of the situation on the city and fire department's part.
Cambria said you have to file not the notice of claim not just with the city, but with the fire department.
"If you only filed against one, the defense of that one might be well, it's the other, it's the other and you didn't sue them, so there's no action. So of course, you file against every possible entity that could be involved in the nature of your allegations, here they're alleging some insufficient training, perhaps negligence on the part of the individuals in charge, and so on."
Listen to WBEN now!
Should the City settle before attempting to go to trial? Cambria says it is too early to tell.
"You can't make that decision until you're into the case. You've taken depositions and you hear what both sides have to say what their experts have to say."
This notice of claim will not hinder investigations, but allow them to continue more thoroughly according to Cambria.
"The notice of claim gives the opportunity for the investigation to continue to play out and be completed. It gives you over a year before you file your lawsuit, which would give you ample time to do the investigation."