KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Attorneys representing a man and girl severely injured in the explosion earlier this month in Lexington have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against four companies involved in the incident.
Jacob Cunningham and his 10-year-old daughter Cami Lamb, who is identified by her initials in the lawsuit filed last Friday, filed the lawsuit. Both were injured in the April 9 explosion that killed 5-year-old Alistair Lamb.
United Fiber, LLC, Liberty Utilities, Alfra Communication, LLC, and Sellenriek Construction, Inc. are all named as defendants in the 207-page lawsuit filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court.
Cunningham was appointed guardian and conservator of Cami and Alistair in December 2024, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit lays out the timeline of events that led up to the explosion on the night of April 9.
The timeline started around 4:15 p.m. when United Fiber, Alfra Communication and Sellenriek Construction were installing underground fiber optic cable and struck an underground natural gas line owned by Liberty Utilities.
The lawsuit alleges natural gas then spread out underground and into nearby homes for more than three hours. Around 7:45 p.m., the accumulated gas ignited and sent an explosion through part of the town east of Kansas City.
In the days following the explosion, the National Transportation Safety Board took over the investigation, sending a crew to Lexington to gather information. An NTSB spokesperson said the board hoped to provide a preliminary report of the incident within the next 30 days.
You can read a copy of the civil lawsuit online.
—
